Barry Ptolemy Barry Ptolemy Robert Barry Ptolemy (born 1969) is an American film director, producer and writer. Ptolemy directed "Transcendent Man" (2009) a documentary film about futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil. Ptolemy was born in Los Angeles, California. His father introduced him to computers at an early age, giving him a lifelong interest in technology. At the age of 12, Ptolemy worked with Steven Spielberg on the set of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) as an animal wrangler. Inspired by working with Spielberg the next year in 1983 Ptolemy directed and produced his first short film "The Holograph" which won first place in
Stone Tower (Ptolemy) Stone Tower (Ptolemy) Ptolemy, the Greco-Egyptian geographer of Alexandria, wrote about a "Stone Tower" (λίθινος πύργος in Greek, "Turris Lapidea" in Latin) which marked the mid-point on the ancient Silk Road – the network of overland trade routes taken by caravans between Europe and Asia. It was the most important landmark on this route, where caravans stopped on their difficult and dangerous journeys to allow travellers to take on provisions, rest, and trade goods before continuing on. Ptolemy's famous treatise on cartography, "Geography", written around 140 CE, is the only book on this subject to have survived from classical antiquity,