3 ms·

I came here hoping to hear stories of the more intricate machines people have held. I held a baby. Does that beat a phone?

bluejellybean 2mo ago
Beats it for sure, humans are by far the most complex machines, a true marvel of the world. By comparisons, humans make phones look like simple toys.
- FartyMcFarter 2mo ago
  I don't know, it's different. Humans are analog wonders, phones are digital wonders, both impressive in one of those categories.
  - nayuki 2mo ago
    Humans have a bunch of digital components at their core: DNA, RNA, and peptides. It's not all analog. Likewise, phones have numerous analog components: microphone, speaker, camera, screen, radio modem, power regulation. Please don't equate the word "digital" to the notions of being electronic, man-made, or modern. Digital is simply an agreement between a sender and receiver that information is finite and perfectly copyable. (By contrast, analog information is infinite and cannot be copied perfectly.)
jollyllama 2mo ago
Spectrum analyzer might not be baby-tier but it probably is more intricate than a phone. Not that I've held one.
dylan604 2mo ago
Puts a new spin on designed in California, built in China
deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]
nonameiguess 2mo ago
Any animal beats an engineered machine. Heck, the bacteria in your hand are probably more intricate than a phone.
- vablings 2mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War Battle tested too!
E-Machine 2mo ago
I put a lot of thought into that problem: So a baby, a seed, any living thing (or even a chunk of something that was once living I suppose) is more complex, which I why I went with 'machine' to exclude those. I also toyed with saying 'own' rather than 'held', but a modern electric car is basically a beefed up phone with a bunch of driving stuff too, so they wouldn't pass that test. There are some edge cases: someone upthread held a classic inertial guidance system, and a modern GPU is arguably more intricate, though much more single-function, and good luck getting your hands on one of those anyway!
TMWNN 2mo ago
>Where can you find another non-linear servo-mechanism weighing only 150 pounds and having great adaptability, that can be produced so cheaply by completely unskilled labor? —Scott Crossfield, 1954 <https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/02/01/computer/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/02/01/computer/>
II2II 2mo ago
Given the context, most people would consider a machine as something designed and built by people. With respect to babies: we cannot do the former (yet) and I think most people would consider the latter to be a bit of a stretch (growth and development is a bit different from the common notion of building, even if it is a biological process occurring within a person). While someone can probably cite a more intricate machine that can reasonably be held within a hand, the assemblage of features in a phone certainly makes it one of the more complex machines of its size. Especially when you consider how many fields it draws upon. Digital electronics is sufficiently different from RF electronics, the RF spectrum behaves differently (from an engineering standpoint) from the optical spectrum. That accelerometer may be packaged like an IC but MEMS are quite different from a CPU or solid state memory. The list could go on.
kccqzy 2mo ago
I once had an interview where the interviewer asked me, if you had to be alone on a remote and uninhabited island that somehow had food and water, what would you bring. I answered the phone and began to explain how it was an intricate machine that showed the technical prowess of humankind and tethered me back to the ingenuity of humans. I saw the interviewer roll her eyes and glaze over my explanations. Apparently some people don’t appreciate the fact that anything mass-produced could be interesting enough.
__MatrixMan__ 2mo ago
I have seen babies do that, yes.

bluejellybean 2mo ago

Beats it for sure, humans are by far the most complex machines, a true marvel of the world. By comparisons, humans make phones look like simple toys.

FartyMcFarter 2mo ago
I don't know, it's different. Humans are analog wonders, phones are digital wonders, both impressive in one of those categories.
- nayuki 2mo ago
  Humans have a bunch of digital components at their core: DNA, RNA, and peptides. It's not all analog. Likewise, phones have numerous analog components: microphone, speaker, camera, screen, radio modem, power regulation. Please don't equate the word "digital" to the notions of being electronic, man-made, or modern. Digital is simply an agreement between a sender and receiver that information is finite and perfectly copyable. (By contrast, analog information is infinite and cannot be copied perfectly.)

jollyllama 2mo ago

Spectrum analyzer might not be baby-tier but it probably is more intricate than a phone. Not that I've held one.

dylan604 2mo ago

Puts a new spin on designed in California, built in China

deleted 2mo ago

[deleted]

nonameiguess 2mo ago

Any animal beats an engineered machine. Heck, the bacteria in your hand are probably more intricate than a phone.

vablings 2mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War Battle tested too!

E-Machine 2mo ago

I put a lot of thought into that problem: So a baby, a seed, any living thing (or even a chunk of something that was once living I suppose) is more complex, which I why I went with 'machine' to exclude those. I also toyed with saying 'own' rather than 'held', but a modern electric car is basically a beefed up phone with a bunch of driving stuff too, so they wouldn't pass that test. There are some edge cases: someone upthread held a classic inertial guidance system, and a modern GPU is arguably more intricate, though much more single-function, and good luck getting your hands on one of those anyway!

TMWNN 2mo ago

>Where can you find another non-linear servo-mechanism weighing only 150 pounds and having great adaptability, that can be produced so cheaply by completely unskilled labor? —Scott Crossfield, 1954 <https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/02/01/computer/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/02/01/computer/>

II2II 2mo ago

Given the context, most people would consider a machine as something designed and built by people. With respect to babies: we cannot do the former (yet) and I think most people would consider the latter to be a bit of a stretch (growth and development is a bit different from the common notion of building, even if it is a biological process occurring within a person). While someone can probably cite a more intricate machine that can reasonably be held within a hand, the assemblage of features in a phone certainly makes it one of the more complex machines of its size. Especially when you consider how many fields it draws upon. Digital electronics is sufficiently different from RF electronics, the RF spectrum behaves differently (from an engineering standpoint) from the optical spectrum. That accelerometer may be packaged like an IC but MEMS are quite different from a CPU or solid state memory. The list could go on.

kccqzy 2mo ago

I once had an interview where the interviewer asked me, if you had to be alone on a remote and uninhabited island that somehow had food and water, what would you bring. I answered the phone and began to explain how it was an intricate machine that showed the technical prowess of humankind and tethered me back to the ingenuity of humans. I saw the interviewer roll her eyes and glaze over my explanations. Apparently some people don’t appreciate the fact that anything mass-produced could be interesting enough.

__MatrixMan__ 2mo ago

I have seen babies do that, yes.