a philosopher designed a prototype for a steam machine

True.

and that could have kickstarted the industrial revolution about 1000 or so years earlier

Overlooking a lot of reasons why this wouldn't have been possible, as we will see.

even speculated we would have colonized Alpha Centauri

Will I ever grow tired of that little piece of hype? Much as I love our nearest stellar neighbour, everything saying that "if it weren't for X technology we'd already be at Alpha Centauri" is Shiny Tech Hype.

More can always be said, of course, so if anyone else wants to show the merits of the aeolipile, please don't let this post stop you! For the meantime, here are some previous posts on The Most Overhyped Steam Toy Ever:

• u/restricteddata and u/half3clipse go into the aeolipile and both theoretical and practical barriers to getting any work out of one;
• and u/LuxArdens goes into why the Romans didn't industrialise.