Some clock for example might enable the user to see 2 seconds in the future when wound up.
Some piece of cable might envelop that who holds it in a poisonous cloud of gas that melts metal.
Some might simply be annoying, such as a piece of cloth that never ceases screaming.
Regardless, since there is no need for actual scientific development, society is now based around these artifacts.
Living under the shadow of giants, we can only look around to their death as our means of life.
The system is pretty simple.
There are only 3 classes in Numenera.
Glaive, which are equivalent to close quarter bruisers.
Nanos, which are akin to a long ranged mage.
And Jacks, which blend a bit of both, but can never master either.
You have also 3 stat pools, Might, Speed and Intelligence and a bunch of skills like deciphering, athletics, climbing, etc.
Tests are done using the a difficulty ladder, much like in Fate.
The GM chooses the difficulty and multiplies the number by three, that then becomes the value you have to beat using a d20.
All rolls always use a d20, but you can modify a few things, for example, you can spend points from the appropriate pool to reduce the dificulty of the task.
You can also sum values to your roll based on your use of narrative assets, or skills.
And that is pretty much how the main mechanics of numenera work.
Also, when you take damage, your pools will start being depleted, when all of them reach zero, you die.
You will also begin with a few numenera of your own.
That will do really weird stuff, and it is up to you to make them useful.