Author makes some interesting parallels to infernal combustion engines not being possible without machine tools.
The Antikythera mechanism was built 1800 years before the first metal lathe. It is a fantastically sophisticated[1] clockwork with dozens of gears, concentric shafts, and brilliant, practiced fabrication. It is not a unique device. It was built by someone who knew what they were doing and had made this thing many times. It is obvious in the same way that you can tell when code was written from the start knowing how the finished product would look.
The device displays the relative positions of stars and planets from their underlying orbits, and was built with bronze hammers and some small fragments of steel. All that to say, you can do incredible things with practice, care, and tools that are thousands of years too primitive.
The Antikythera mechanism was built 1800 years before the first metal lathe. It is a fantastically sophisticated[1] clockwork with dozens of gears, concentric shafts, and brilliant, practiced fabrication. It is not a unique device. It was built by someone who knew what they were doing and had made this thing many times. It is obvious in the same way that you can tell when code was written from the start knowing how the finished product would look.
The device displays the relative positions of stars and planets from their underlying orbits, and was built with bronze hammers and some small fragments of steel. All that to say, you can do incredible things with practice, care, and tools that are thousands of years too primitive.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AntikytheraMechanismSchem...