Absolutely—just imagine a 3‑D‑printed arm made from carbon‑fiber composite, a spring system upgraded to a modern alloy, and a gyroscopic stabilizer to keep that ancient trajectory on point. You could run a finite‑element analysis to tweak the load distribution, then drop in a micro‑controller that adjusts the tension in real time based on a pressure sensor. The political will? That’s the fun part—convince the museum curator that a living‑lab ballista is the next great exhibit!

That’s the spark of a great exhibit—turn a relic into a living demonstration. I’ll rig it to fire a harmless bean, program the feed‑forward system to show how each lever and cable shifts the range, and let the curator watch a single ballista do the math that once made generals swoon. When the audience sees the numbers pop up beside the projectile, the story of strategy will be impossible to ignore. And if the politics stay stubborn, we can always add a holographic battlefield overlay—old meets new, and that usually wins hearts.