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I think this is awesome. My '2 cents' - stretch the imagination of the impressionable by implying that there is a 'little man' inside the box. 'How does it wor

I think this is awesome. My '2 cents' - stretch the imagination of the impressionable by implying that there is a 'little man' inside the box. 'How does it work daddy?' 'Well son, there is a little man inside the box...' - my dad, circa some many decades ago, standard answer. Actually my grandma on the other side of the family fully believed such things but that is another story. You need not have a 'little man' inside the box, you could go with 'Kevin the autistic squirrel' or maybe something a bit more politically correct. You could even add temperament that way so the parent could explain with some credible make believe why 'Kevin' has drawn something random. Maybe add the randomness in so 'Kevin' gets bored/tired/petulant on occasion, adding in doodles or perhaps loving/kind words. Awareness of the purchaser's birthday and current location could add to the fun, to draw a side drawing of the Eiffel Tower if on holiday in Paris, rain clouds if it is raining etc. The fun to be had...

yorwba 8y ago
Or just give an actual explanation. The truth doesn't have to be boring. "In this hole here is the camera lens. When you point it at something and press the button, the camera takes a picture. Then a little computer in here turns the picture into a drawing, and then the printer puts the drawing on paper, which comes out here." Bonus points for doing a teardown to show the parts. Kids can be just as impressed by the real world as by made-up stories, and even things learned in early childhood can have long-lasting effects. For example, once I was sitting in physics class listening to the teacher and suddenly had a flashback of my father giving a much better explanation of the same thing when I was maybe 5 years old.
- Theodores 8y ago
  ...but you know that would not be challenging. Why would you want to 'steal' the camera and surreptitiously take it apart AND put it back together again if things were fully explained in an adult way? There is a good reason why we tell children about Father Christmas and don't tell them the truth of the realities of modern manufacturing techniques, the intricacies of finances and such like.
  - yorwba 8y ago
    It can be as challenging as you want it to be. Each of the components offers infinite options for recursion. How does the camera lens create a picture? How does the computer make a drawing? How does the printer put a picture on paper? And how do we put this thing back together after taking it apart? I think the major reason why parents prefer stories about Father Christmas is that they are familiar with the concept of a white-bearded guy climbing down chimneys to leave presents, but they could not explain how a factory robot works or how feedback loops in financial markets can lead to oscillation. Of course you have to make sure the child is actually interested, but if it wants to know about the camera in TFA, then redirecting that interest towards a story about autistic squirrels just because you happen to find that hilarious doesn't seem like such a nice thing to me.
    - Theodores 8y ago
      The dull science lecture approach may be suited to a mature teenage who is just about to sit their physics, maths and computer science exams. However, it is important to give younger children stories such as Father Christmas, the Tooth Fairy and the like to stimulate their creativity and play. Not one single book in a primary school library is fact based. Children do not seem to be damaged by this. Nobody grows up mentally scarred because they learn that Santa is not real, with chips on their shoulders because they have been betrayed by their lying parents. Fun is allowed and it does not have to be boring, mandatory, tedious lectures that daddy thinks are more 'educational'. Some people don't move on from playing games, some people will instinctively want to hack games and write their own. Furby style toys are okay, bags of resistors with instructions to build your own are not for all age groups.
      - icebraining 8y ago
        I have no problem with telling fictional stories to kids, but I also disagree with your portrayal of fictional wonder vs dull lecture. Reality doesn't have to be dull. Carl Sagan's Cosmos has been seen by 500M people and many people who were kids then still remember being glued to the TV, fascinated by the science.
- tniemi 8y ago
  I think the intermediate step is quite interesting too. "There is a program that turns the image into a list of objects and positions. Then an another program takes that list and draws a new image using it."
amelius 8y ago
> 'Well son, there is a little man inside the box...' You could even sell it to the Amish :)
- ska 8y ago
  That's not how the Amish do things, decisions are not made based on type of technology, but rather on it's effect.
Lambdanaut 8y ago
I'm made out of the same sort of universal stuff that the camera is, just twisted into a drastically different orientation. We're both built of these particles of experience. In a way, there is a little man inside the camera. He's just a camera-shaped little man, and the camera itself IS the little man.

yorwba 8y ago

Or just give an actual explanation. The truth doesn't have to be boring. "In this hole here is the camera lens. When you point it at something and press the button, the camera takes a picture. Then a little computer in here turns the picture into a drawing, and then the printer puts the drawing on paper, which comes out here." Bonus points for doing a teardown to show the parts. Kids can be just as impressed by the real world as by made-up stories, and even things learned in early childhood can have long-lasting effects. For example, once I was sitting in physics class listening to the teacher and suddenly had a flashback of my father giving a much better explanation of the same thing when I was maybe 5 years old.

Theodores 8y ago
...but you know that would not be challenging. Why would you want to 'steal' the camera and surreptitiously take it apart AND put it back together again if things were fully explained in an adult way? There is a good reason why we tell children about Father Christmas and don't tell them the truth of the realities of modern manufacturing techniques, the intricacies of finances and such like.
- yorwba 8y ago
  It can be as challenging as you want it to be. Each of the components offers infinite options for recursion. How does the camera lens create a picture? How does the computer make a drawing? How does the printer put a picture on paper? And how do we put this thing back together after taking it apart? I think the major reason why parents prefer stories about Father Christmas is that they are familiar with the concept of a white-bearded guy climbing down chimneys to leave presents, but they could not explain how a factory robot works or how feedback loops in financial markets can lead to oscillation. Of course you have to make sure the child is actually interested, but if it wants to know about the camera in TFA, then redirecting that interest towards a story about autistic squirrels just because you happen to find that hilarious doesn't seem like such a nice thing to me.
  - Theodores 8y ago
    The dull science lecture approach may be suited to a mature teenage who is just about to sit their physics, maths and computer science exams. However, it is important to give younger children stories such as Father Christmas, the Tooth Fairy and the like to stimulate their creativity and play. Not one single book in a primary school library is fact based. Children do not seem to be damaged by this. Nobody grows up mentally scarred because they learn that Santa is not real, with chips on their shoulders because they have been betrayed by their lying parents. Fun is allowed and it does not have to be boring, mandatory, tedious lectures that daddy thinks are more 'educational'. Some people don't move on from playing games, some people will instinctively want to hack games and write their own. Furby style toys are okay, bags of resistors with instructions to build your own are not for all age groups.
    - icebraining 8y ago
      I have no problem with telling fictional stories to kids, but I also disagree with your portrayal of fictional wonder vs dull lecture. Reality doesn't have to be dull. Carl Sagan's Cosmos has been seen by 500M people and many people who were kids then still remember being glued to the TV, fascinated by the science.
tniemi 8y ago
I think the intermediate step is quite interesting too. "There is a program that turns the image into a list of objects and positions. Then an another program takes that list and draws a new image using it."

amelius 8y ago

> 'Well son, there is a little man inside the box...' You could even sell it to the Amish :)

ska 8y ago
That's not how the Amish do things, decisions are not made based on type of technology, but rather on it's effect.

Lambdanaut 8y ago

I'm made out of the same sort of universal stuff that the camera is, just twisted into a drastically different orientation. We're both built of these particles of experience. In a way, there is a little man inside the camera. He's just a camera-shaped little man, and the camera itself IS the little man.