This is a cool statistical paper, one of many depressing papers that makes me wish I knew more math. The "gravitational wave" angle is apparently that it uses some statistical methods that originated in gravity wave research. There are no ultra-sensitive new measurements or anything like that. They use the same X-ray measurements as the Clickspring article from a few years ago (https://bhi.co.uk/antikytheramechanism/) and basically support Clickspring's conclusion (that the Antikythera was a lunar calendar) with increased statistical confidence.
Gravitational wave researchers cast new light on Antikythera mechanism mystery
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Re: Gravitational wave researchers cast new light on Antikythera mechanism mystery
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is probably the best argument in favor of universal basic income (UBI). Any nation that leans into that can then focus on innovation.
People who will depend on UBI won't innovate. People who innovate don't need UBI. Slavery was expensive (guards, low productivity). In USSR Soviets realised that in Gulags it's more effective to pay Zeks regular salary and treat them as contractors than keep them as slave work force.
UBI and better healthcare would allow me the freedom to innovate. Right now it’s a much more significant barrier to strike out on my own and build something. So it makes more sense to me to just have a 9-5 job, but if there was a bit more wiggle room I’d certainly try it.
Re: Gravitational wave researchers cast new light on Antikythera mechanism mystery
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sorry if I'm coming off as combative, I'm legitimately, genuinely, confused: what part is clickbait? They are gravitational wave researchers. Poking around this: I have a test for myself before I rant about science journalism: "would it be confusing without the thing my rant is angry about?" Answer here is yes, I'm very familiar with this sort of thing from the astrophysics people in my physics department 18 year…
The "Gravitational Wave" part is clickbait. It could have said "Researchers cast new light...". Also the first paragraph is clickbait "Techniques developed to analyse the ripples in spacetime detected by one of the 21st century’s most sensitive pieces of scientific equipment have helped cast new light on the function of the oldest known analogue computer." it elaborates further down: "Professor Woan used a technique…
It's not just Bayesian analysis. I'm beginning to get a distinct impression people saw "Bayesian" and did a quick scan of the paper. To this graduate school physics dropout, this is an astrophysics-style paper on an archaeological artifact.
Re: Gravitational wave researchers cast new light on Antikythera mechanism mystery
#44The paper notes a (to me) amazing thing. The object of the researchers' Bayesian analysis is the number of holes likely to have been made in a metal ring, of which only a fragment remains. They think either 354 or 355 holes, on a 77.1mm radius.
The amazing thing is that the holes were placed with an average radial variation of only 28µm. This is about 0.001 inches. 2000 years ago. Our ancestors had some serious skills.
Re: Gravitational wave researchers cast new light on Antikythera mechanism mystery
#45> Gravitational wave researchers cast new light on…
Seems like they are a bit out of their lane, as light is an electromagnetic phenomenon, a completely different force from gravitation.
More seriously: the fact that the two scientists happen to have been doing data analysis on gravitational data isn’t really relevant to the work, rather it was pulled out to make us click on the article title.
Super interesting work though, and not what I would have expected!
Re: Gravitational wave researchers cast new light on Antikythera mechanism mystery
#46Greeks were cooking with gas (from the paper): “However, we note that the degree of manufacturing precision is remarkable, with standard errors in hole positions of only 0.028mm radially, and 0.129mm azimuthally. Budiselic et al. quote a standard deviation for their individual position measurements of 0.037 mm, so a good deal of the radial error may come from the measurements of the X-ray images themselves.”
As someone who spent a decade doing precision metrology with optical devices... there isn't a way to correctly measure that part with the precision they indicate in the measured values.
The measurements were done on X-ray images, not optical.
Re: Gravitational wave researchers cast new light on Antikythera mechanism mystery
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's clickbait. I suppose you think it isn't clickbait because it isn't lying but I classify it as such because it seems intended to give wild impressions which are contrary to truth, namely that the mechanism had anything to do with gravitational waves. Clickbaiting without lying is a common technique among science reporters, almost as common as clickbaiting with lies.
I'm sorry if I'm coming off as combative, I'm legitimately, genuinely, confused: what part is clickbait? They are gravitational wave researchers. Poking around this: I have a test for myself before I rant about science journalism: "would it be confusing without the thing my rant is angry about?" Answer here is yes, I'm very familiar with this sort of thing from the astrophysics people in my physics department 18 year…
> what part is clickbait? They are gravitational wave researchers.
They are physicists who are in practice data scientists. They are both male, presumably have experienced no amputations, and look like they were born in the 20th century. Their “day job” is in gravitation. They both likely speak English.
The only part of which which has even the slightest bearing on their work is that they are of late de facto data scientists, among their (presumable) other skills.
Re: Gravitational wave researchers cast new light on Antikythera mechanism mystery
#48The paper [here]( https://bhi.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/07-HJJuly24-AOT... ) makes it clear that these researchers (whose main topic is gravitational waves) have used Bayesian analyses to estimate how likely different counts for holes present in the full calendar ring are. This is cool, but the bit about "techniques developed to analyse the ripples in spacetime" is, well, making reference to Bayesian analysis.
Why is science reporting such irredeemable clickbaity trash? Not just from the mainstream media with commercial motive, from whom I naturally expect trash, but also from nonprofit universities of all places. Seriously, who is the intended audience of this headline? People who only read the headline and think "Woweee science is amazing!" before scrolling down? Anybody who reads the article will roll their eyes at the…
> Seriously, who is the intended audience of this headline?
The headline seems fine to me. You might mean the synopsis after it?
Re: Gravitational wave researchers cast new light on Antikythera mechanism mystery
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
People who will depend on UBI won't innovate. People who innovate don't need UBI. Slavery was expensive (guards, low productivity). In USSR Soviets realised that in Gulags it's more effective to pay Zeks regular salary and treat them as contractors than keep them as slave work force.
UBI and better healthcare would allow me the freedom to innovate. Right now it’s a much more significant barrier to strike out on my own and build something. So it makes more sense to me to just have a 9-5 job, but if there was a bit more wiggle room I’d certainly try it.
Would you innovate or just play minecraft/guitar or read books about innovation but never innovate.
Re: Gravitational wave researchers cast new light on Antikythera mechanism mystery
#50I'm currently building this 3d printed version of the Antikythera mechanism. It's not easy:
https://www.printables.com/model/284372-antikythera-mechanis...
It is insane how complicated this is, and this is a simplified version of the actual thing. This schematic of the proposed full mechanism (I think it's hypothesizing some of the missing parts) blows my mind: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Antikyth...
If you have a 3d printer, I really am enjoying the project and recommend it.