The LEGO Antikythera Mechanism

Toys are never just toys. (Ask any agency with a foosball table.)



What you're looking at is a fully functioning Antikythera Mechanism, built with LEGO blocks.

The Antikythera Mechanism was built in Greece around 100 BC and is the oldest-known scientific computer. It was recovered from a shipwreck in 1901, but it took over a century to fully understand its purpose. The machine is an astonomical clock that determines the positions of celestial bodies with a precision that can only be described as pristine. In the example above, you'll see that it can predict a solar eclipse in 2024 down to the half-hour.

I'm reminded of a geeky quote from Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (highly recommended): "What the body creates is as much an expression of its DNA as the body itself."

What are we expressing? What are we playing with?

LEGO. AR. OASIS. Dragons!

O'er at Intel Labs, Seattle, LEGO got together with OASIS to see how the play experience could be augmented with (ta-da!) augmented reality.

While it isn't clear how likely it is that we'll all have AR tables installed at home in the near future, I like the idea that environment can be used to respond to play in a way that fuels the imagination. Sure, the mind can make a house burst into flames all on its own. But it's so much funner to be able to see it.