Most weird sci-fi gadgets lose their sense of oddity with time. Heron's aelopile has been on off-the-wall gizmo for 2,200 years. Technically, the aelopile is both a jet engine and a steam turbine, but it's by no means a precursor of any real jet engine or any real steam turbine. The aeopile never seems to have been entirely forgotten or to have fallen out of "use" -- perhaps because the aelopile never achieved any "use." It has no ancestors, no descendants and has never been substantially "improved."
Since an aelopile could hit 500 rpm when properly greased, this was by far the most rapidly moving object known to the ancient world.
You could instantiate an aelopile tomorrow, but what would you do with it? It's is a living-fossil wonder-gadget. It's be guessing that in another 2,200 years, the aelopile will seem about as curious and quirky as it does today.
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