5 ms·

Man Embraces Useless Machines, and Absurdity Ensues

143 points by FluidDjango 15y ago

knowtheory 15y ago
I thought this was going to be about hispter rube goldberg machines, and it's kind of about that, but still, the guy travels to build rube goldberg devices, and was inspired by Pythagoras's Switch (a Japanese children's television show that was posted on youtube for some time, and became a bit of a phenomenon). So yeah, a little bit hipster, but a guy who actually seems to care about doing something neat (albeit useless).
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
sixQuarks 15y ago
The last part of the video was hilarious
tikhonj 15y ago
I thought "Man" from the headline was a synecdoche for humanity and was ready for a depressing anti-technology article. I was pleasantly surprised.
- tfb 15y ago
  I thought the same thing too and was also pleasantly surprised. In the past, I've always just found these machines entertaining, as opposed to funny. I never knew they were supposed to be funny; I always thought they were just supposed to be pointlessly entertaining ("Ooo what's going to happen next?!") but I definitely got a good laugh out of the end there. The guy certainly proved the hilarity of making the simplest task as ridiculously complicated as possible. And I'm reminded of times in the past where I've unintentionally solved a problem in software engineering through a ridiculously complicated method where there was actually a much simpler solution unapparent to me. At the time, it wasn't funny; but looking back now, it certainly is. I wonder how many times it took him to get it to work right, especially with the hamster likely being the most unpredictable component of the system.
  - __david__ 15y ago
    He's right, there's something about the machines that makes me laugh--the 5 watering cans in particular made me giggle. Though I have to say I cringed when the macbook fell off the table. I hope it has an SSD (or a pillow under it)…
aed 15y ago
This seems like it would be a good pastime for kids. Teaches patience, trial-and-error, engineering, creativity, etc.
MetallicCloud 15y ago
As a kid, I used to always try and create machines like this in my room. I think I was inspired by the movie "The Goonies". Nothing I ever created worked very well, but most of the fun was in trying anyway. This story does make me want to set something up in my shed though...
- AzAngel 15y ago
  Right there with you. Never was good at creating these, but actually did get that game mousetrap because of this reason.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
po 15y ago
Here in Japan there is a TV station called NHK which make a series of awesome Rube Goldberg machines called 'pythagora switch' and film them for a children't show. The video quality and construction is great and they use nothing that you couldn't find in your house. Some are very simple but the mechanics they use are frequently absolutely shocking. They always end by raising a small flag and arranging the letters of the show. I'm surprised I never saw them until I moved here. I could watch them for hours. I found a DVD of it that comes with a book in the store here and I was going to buy it as a gift for my family but I realized it's probably the wrong region. I can't find an example video online right now. In Japanese it's called: ピタゴラスイッチ http://www.nhk.or.jp/kids/program/pitagora.html http://www.nhk.or.jp/kids/program/pitagora.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PythagoraSwitch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PythagoraSwitch
- icebraining 15y ago
  Youtube had dozens, but apparently NHK removed them :(
  - po 15y ago
    Yeah it's a shame. I finally found some examples on vimeo: http://vimeo.com/13420214 http://vimeo.com/13420214
    - sumukh1 15y ago
      And here is another: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2435046286370275454 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2435046286370275454
- aiham 15y ago
  He mentions that show in the description to his video[1]: "Much credit must be give to the amazing Pitagora Suicchi ones for all their original ideas!" [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrCb_fNmSTA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrCb_fNmSTA
  - 15y ago
alinspired 15y ago
building the machines looks like low level programming :)
bennytjia 15y ago
Sadly they call it 'useless'. something that takes effort, creativity, and engineering perfection to build is never useless. It improves your way o thinking, engineering skills, patience, and other valuable essence that would take years to be invested in yourself through some other means. In addition, it is an entertainment to me. I have seen a lot of these machines since i was a kid, and I am always amazed each time I see this. I agree with the idea to introduce this as a hobby to kids. I was myself introduced to programming as a hobby and never knew what it was for. I did it because I like it. You build whatever you want, whatever you like, make sure it always excites you whenever you get up in the morning and continue working on it, and never stop learning about it. There's no such thing as 'useless' machine.
suprgeek 15y ago
The machines are not useless- at a minimum they have one purpose- to entertain the viewers. A rather unfortunate use of the word - gives the impression that this is going to be some kind of return-to-pre-industrial article. This is the kind of Modern Art that I understand and brings a smile to the face.
nodemaker 15y ago
I guess the same concept can be applied to write software programs whose goal is to perform some crazy tasks in order to do something very simple. For example a browser which shows the animation of a person going to California to Google Offices asking for HTML bringing it back to the user,effectively parsing each line and finally showing Google.com could be an awesome idea.But then I wonder if anyone would be entertained by this! Anyone got any other ideas for Rube Goldberg software programs?
leoedin 15y ago
I loved the guinea pig and the hairdryer! I'd imagine that to sell them you'd have to package them up in a rectangular box, and build them to be automated. You'd need to find creative ways to keep the water-pouring systems hydrated. If you made a backing board with a ball-run inside it, along with a lot of ball lifts, you could build something that could repopulate it's balls back to their original places. It'd be as much or more work than designing the original though. And chemical reactions and hamsters would be right out.
eftpotrm 15y ago
Looks great fun :-) I've been involved with Meccano for years and there's a popular family of models that are sort of perpetual versions of this sort of thing, sending balls on endless loops. The best ones are a bit functionally dense to really appreciate except in person, but here's one I saw a few years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf25bYSjD9M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf25bYSjD9M

143 points by FluidDjango 15y ago

I thought this was going to be about hispter rube goldberg machines, and it's kind of about that, but still, the guy travels to build rube goldberg devices, and was inspired by Pythagoras's Switch (a Japanese children's television show that was posted on youtube for some time, and became a bit of a phenomenon). So yeah, a little bit hipster, but a guy who actually seems to care about doing something neat (albeit useless).

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

sixQuarks 15y ago

The last part of the video was hilarious

tikhonj 15y ago

I thought "Man" from the headline was a synecdoche for humanity and was ready for a depressing anti-technology article. I was pleasantly surprised.

tfb 15y ago
I thought the same thing too and was also pleasantly surprised. In the past, I've always just found these machines entertaining, as opposed to funny. I never knew they were supposed to be funny; I always thought they were just supposed to be pointlessly entertaining ("Ooo what's going to happen next?!") but I definitely got a good laugh out of the end there. The guy certainly proved the hilarity of making the simplest task as ridiculously complicated as possible. And I'm reminded of times in the past where I've unintentionally solved a problem in software engineering through a ridiculously complicated method where there was actually a much simpler solution unapparent to me. At the time, it wasn't funny; but looking back now, it certainly is. I wonder how many times it took him to get it to work right, especially with the hamster likely being the most unpredictable component of the system.
- __david__ 15y ago
  He's right, there's something about the machines that makes me laugh--the 5 watering cans in particular made me giggle. Though I have to say I cringed when the macbook fell off the table. I hope it has an SSD (or a pillow under it)…

aed 15y ago

This seems like it would be a good pastime for kids. Teaches patience, trial-and-error, engineering, creativity, etc.

MetallicCloud 15y ago

As a kid, I used to always try and create machines like this in my room. I think I was inspired by the movie "The Goonies". Nothing I ever created worked very well, but most of the fun was in trying anyway. This story does make me want to set something up in my shed though...

AzAngel 15y ago
Right there with you. Never was good at creating these, but actually did get that game mousetrap because of this reason.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

po 15y ago

Here in Japan there is a TV station called NHK which make a series of awesome Rube Goldberg machines called 'pythagora switch' and film them for a children't show. The video quality and construction is great and they use nothing that you couldn't find in your house. Some are very simple but the mechanics they use are frequently absolutely shocking. They always end by raising a small flag and arranging the letters of the show. I'm surprised I never saw them until I moved here. I could watch them for hours. I found a DVD of it that comes with a book in the store here and I was going to buy it as a gift for my family but I realized it's probably the wrong region. I can't find an example video online right now. In Japanese it's called: ピタゴラスイッチ http://www.nhk.or.jp/kids/program/pitagora.html http://www.nhk.or.jp/kids/program/pitagora.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PythagoraSwitch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PythagoraSwitch

icebraining 15y ago
Youtube had dozens, but apparently NHK removed them :(
- po 15y ago
  Yeah it's a shame. I finally found some examples on vimeo: http://vimeo.com/13420214 http://vimeo.com/13420214
  - sumukh1 15y ago
    And here is another: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2435046286370275454 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2435046286370275454
aiham 15y ago
He mentions that show in the description to his video[1]: "Much credit must be give to the amazing Pitagora Suicchi ones for all their original ideas!" [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrCb_fNmSTA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrCb_fNmSTA
- 15y ago

alinspired 15y ago

building the machines looks like low level programming :)

bennytjia 15y ago

Sadly they call it 'useless'. something that takes effort, creativity, and engineering perfection to build is never useless. It improves your way o thinking, engineering skills, patience, and other valuable essence that would take years to be invested in yourself through some other means. In addition, it is an entertainment to me. I have seen a lot of these machines since i was a kid, and I am always amazed each time I see this. I agree with the idea to introduce this as a hobby to kids. I was myself introduced to programming as a hobby and never knew what it was for. I did it because I like it. You build whatever you want, whatever you like, make sure it always excites you whenever you get up in the morning and continue working on it, and never stop learning about it. There's no such thing as 'useless' machine.

suprgeek 15y ago

The machines are not useless- at a minimum they have one purpose- to entertain the viewers. A rather unfortunate use of the word - gives the impression that this is going to be some kind of return-to-pre-industrial article. This is the kind of Modern Art that I understand and brings a smile to the face.

nodemaker 15y ago

I guess the same concept can be applied to write software programs whose goal is to perform some crazy tasks in order to do something very simple. For example a browser which shows the animation of a person going to California to Google Offices asking for HTML bringing it back to the user,effectively parsing each line and finally showing Google.com could be an awesome idea.But then I wonder if anyone would be entertained by this! Anyone got any other ideas for Rube Goldberg software programs?

leoedin 15y ago

I loved the guinea pig and the hairdryer! I'd imagine that to sell them you'd have to package them up in a rectangular box, and build them to be automated. You'd need to find creative ways to keep the water-pouring systems hydrated. If you made a backing board with a ball-run inside it, along with a lot of ball lifts, you could build something that could repopulate it's balls back to their original places. It'd be as much or more work than designing the original though. And chemical reactions and hamsters would be right out.

eftpotrm 15y ago

Looks great fun :-) I've been involved with Meccano for years and there's a popular family of models that are sort of perpetual versions of this sort of thing, sending balls on endless loops. The best ones are a bit functionally dense to really appreciate except in person, but here's one I saw a few years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf25bYSjD9M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf25bYSjD9M