Marchant details the 100-year quest to decode an ancient Greek computer device. This is the surprising story behind the 2,000-year-old mechanism that challenges modern assumptions about what ancient scientists knew, and the technological equipment they used to understand their world.
In Decoding the Heavens, Jo Marchant tells for the first time the full story of the hundred-year quest to decipher the ancient Greek computer known as the Antikythera Mechanism. Along the way she unearths a diverse cast of remarkable characters and explores the deep roots of modern technology in ancient Greece and the medieval European and Islamic worlds. At its heart, this is an epic adventure and mystery, a book that challenges our assumptions about technology through the ages.