A Rube Goldberg inspired useless machine
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- Hi!
Are you familiar with the “useless machine”?
The device's sole function is to switch itself off by operating its own "off" switch. The simple model shown at the beginning of the video was inspired by Marvin Minsky's design, who made it as an intellectual joke.
When I first encountered the useless machine, it reminded me of another intellectual joke: Rube Goldberg’s machines. A Rube Goldberg machine is a machine intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way.
"Self-Operated Napkin" Source: Rube Goldberg/Wikimedia Commons
Thinking about these two intellectual jokes made me wonder: “What a Rube Goldberg inspired useless machine looks like?”
Since I have failed to find such a machine online, I have decided to build such a machine on my own.
People are building wonderful Rube Goldberg machines all over the world. I have noticed that the best Rube Goldberg machines not only excel in precision and complexity but, also have a rhythm. The moving parts and rhythm create a dance, with a well-performed choreography. A good example can be seen in the video clip of the song “This Too Shall Pass” by the American rock band OK Go ( • OK Go - This Too Shall... ).
My useless machine comprises the simple elements of a Marvin Minsky machine but turns itself off in the indirect and overly complicated way of a Rube Goldberg machine. It comprises a microcontroller, which enables it to perform versatile scripts, but the last movement disconnects the power to the circuits, completely shutting it off.
Now you know what a Rube Goldberg inspired useless machine looks like.
Thanks for watching. If you liked it, give me a "like" and share.
The best versions have "character". You can almost believe there is an annoyed little man inside.
yes the little man does liv in there
@@chairwood yes they do.
The best version is the JKbrickworks Lego black box. That was the OG video that started it all!
The first one is just a “fuck you” machine. I love it.
@@thethirdman225 um do not google fuck you machine
🎶 “Do you ever feel... like a Rube Goldberg machine... turn yourself off to start all over again” 🎶
Lego has a whole subculture on this
So, Rube Goldberg machines are essentially the mechanical way of computer programming
Short and to the point, I love it
Thank you 😊
That was so satisfying for some reason.
Definitely 😃
I want one of those. It's reminds me of an office I used to work in.
So simple yet so astounding
Thanks 😊
Great idea and well done!
i need more of this
...I didn't know I needed something like this in my life.
This was satisfying to see.
Great video 😉👌
Thanks 😊
Citizens of earth we have found the mother box .
😂
Can someone explain to me why I'm getting useless machine videos in my reccomended? This is like the 10th one so far.
Rube Goldberg machines are useful if you precisly time it when you have something to do, lets say it pours lemonade, and it takes 20 minutes. You have something to do that takes 20 minutes, you can dp that, and then get lemonade
Cheers cc Dr find Sunday's crumble topping up with the buildings
Is it really a Rube Goldberg machine with no hamster, falling objects, or fire? :P
Inspiration works in mysterious ways 😉
I need this as my doorbell to ward off any impatient unwelcome guests
It should have kitty paws turning it off :D
I don't want to harm kitties 😉
My boss has one, and its so fun to toy around with.
This is just amazing!
Thanks 😃
What if u flipped multiple switches at the same time
The software reads the switches' states and responds to the first switch it finds on. If the rest of the switches are turned off during the process, then the box will shut itself off at the end of the process. If the software is still active at the end of the process it performs a recovery script that turns all of the switches off.
I want one, I want one now.
Genius!!! Fresh and delightfully useless. Thank you for sharing......I love it.
Thanks 😊
i love this with all my being
Thanks for sharing 😄
Fantastic.
Useless machine, I just call it government.
Someone has to send this to Mumbo Jumbo
This is fun to watch
Thanks 😃
Wow! It's cool!!
Thanks 😊
Too Funny! Can you make one that slaps the hand of the person turning it on?
I come in peace 😉
Such personality for such a useless machine
Nice work! And great recommendation on “This Too Shall Pass” by OKGO. Great song and an impressive music video to go with it
Thanks 😊
I love this!
Thanks 😊
I'll take 2
What happens if you flick multiple switches on? Does it pick up on that and not try to flick them on in its sequence?
What would happen if you would toggle 2 or more switches on at the same time tho?
How to make this more fun. Get a cat 😂
😃
A Ruth Bader Ginsburg what now
I want it.
Ah, a V8 useless machine
😂
Answer: the yt algorithm
I like that it seems like the same switch doesn't always trigger the same pattern to turn it off.
I programmed 47 different scripts. Some of the scripts are related to the first switch that is turned on.
But can you flip TWO switches?
@@Blahaj_Gaming847 physically yes, mentally no
@@Blahaj_Gaming847 You can. The software reads the switches' states and responds to the first switch it finds on. If the rest of the switches are turned off during the process, then the box will shut itself off at the end of the process. If the software is still active at the end of the process it performs a recovery script that turns all of the switches off.
@@pazhameiri3429 That's actually quite smart, well done.
When I was serving in the Falkland Islands in the 80's I made a small box with a little plastic radar on top, which rotated by some Lego parts. To make the thing fuction there was a door on the side to gain access to the on/off switch. I would take it down to the bar every now and then, place on the table and switch it on. Eventually some one would come along, pick it up and examine it. Most would look inside the door. Inside the door was printed "Warning The Moron Attractor Is Activated". It gave us a cheap laugh, but we were easily amused back then. Eventually somebody got ratty and stamped on it.
Thanks for sharing 😊
Great story
I hope they got some in return for that little stunt.
Got to ask...... which of the 3 mountains were you on?
@@monkeymatt2 Mount Pleasant, it was long after the conflict 85 or 86 possibly. I would have to look up my service docs and they are somewhere in the loft.
I would definitely buy one of these.
I do want one. When will you be mass producing these?
Or at the very least plans for how you built the four switch model. Its complexity of movement is only matched by its sheer simplistic operation...I need to figure out how this was made and make one myself. 😲🤓😲
@@earlware4322 It's written in software
Just buy a Bitcoin miner instead. They perform the same function: nothing. They just do it much less efficiently than this.
But it's useless ! ;-)
Hello from the algorithm, that's very neat
Thanks 😊
wow that was really cool
Wow that was really cool
looɔ γllɒɘɿ ƨɒw tɒʜt woW
@@Ghost-lk2fc bruh
I love that this feels like there is a really OCD goblin that lives inside operating the arms
😃
There is a really ocd goblin living inside my skull
@@craftykit2242 go to the doctor man
@planet 4 I don't have OCD, but I too get annoyed when the "you're so OCD" moniker gets casually tossed about. Not a funny thing to laugh or joke about. OK, rant off.
@planet 4 Honestly, I have mild OCD and this feels like a correct description of the scripts we see running on this machine. It makes patterns out of everything and hits both sides of each switch, which fits in my experience (I'm not diagnosed or severe, but I notice similar tendencies to tap my fingertips to make the number of taps on each finger a symmetrical pattern, or make sure I tap both sides if one side of my finger hits something).
That is art. Art provokes thought and entertains. Art is not “useless”.
Thank you so much 😊. That's exactly how I feel about it.
That'd why I love the goldburg machines and the usless machines because they are a art of the mind. And that was is straight cool
@Zute no but your life is.
@Zute now now..
I mostly agree with that statement. Some forms of "art" are a blackhole to any intelligent thought.
This is a spectacular take on a useless box!
Superb piece of programming there - there’s a definite ‘I’m annoyed with you disturbing me’ vibe present. I really hope that someday you do get to make the plans / code available! (Definitely a project that I would build!!!)
Thanks. I intend to release the code and the electrical documentation (the woodwork is all handmade). I guess I'll do it after I finish another project I'm working on.
@@pazhameiri3429 - I’ve already been thinking of how I’d like to enclose it if you do ... my stepdaughter is autistic and I think this would amuse her for hours!
@@pazhameiri3429 I'm not a particularly handy person, but I'll definitely try my hand at this when you do!
Oh yes please. I wouldn't have any issue with the woodwork, but the programming and micro proccesors/servos/circuits are a little outside my wheelhouse. Dispite that I would definately attempt to make one of these. It has my inner OCD nerd all twitterpated. Its like a fidget spinner for the intellectual.
@@earlware4322 Twitterpated is a great word, first time I've seen it out in the wild.
Please start selling these, I must have one
Thanks for introducing me to Rube Goldberg: I'd never heard of him but he obviously inherited Heath Robinson's aesthetic and humour in a most flattering and influential way :-)
Thanks for introducing me to Heath Robinson. I'd never heard of him.
You've heard of him . . . ever seen the movie Home Alone . . ?
With respect, I don't think it's quite as clear as saying one inherited from the other. I found that MANY countries have their own artist they see as the quintessential.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine#Similar_expressions_and_artists_worldwide
Is any ONE of those the originator and others borrowing? If so, who was first? It's also possible the same concept was thought up by different people on their own.
@@omikronweapon Although you may be taking my largely-throwaway comment a little too seriously (it's meant to introduce a new/younger generation to the rich history of this style of nonsense) for historical interest I shall respond :-)
I agree that other cultures (especially the Bengali author working at a similar time) upto perhaps the 1930s or so are unlikely to have been influenced by, nor influenced, "Western" examples of this humour, and that "convergent evolution" is likely in a couple of these cases. However, it was clear that the US Goldberg and Austrian Gsellmann were influenced by Heath Robinson, and the article you link to even points out his work of this style pre-dates any of the others listed, most of whom started printing in the 1980s to 2000s, harking back to these 3 originators:
"the term "Heath Robinson contraption" gained dictionary recognition in 1912, referring to the fantastical comic machinery drawn by British cartoonist and illustrator W. Heath Robinson, which predates Rube Goldberg's introduction of his machines."
There was also an earlier French sculptor whose name I forget who was influenced by Gsellmann, his large work being installed outside the Pompidou Centre.
Now this is an example of a "new" type of humorously expressive art, so you can't say that one "copied" the other, rather that it's likely they influenced fertilized each others imaginations, and it would be churlish to say "his is more important because he did it first", but it's worth noting that, in Europe at least, Heath Robinson started it all (if you ignore da Vinci!) because then you can go and find some his prolific work that you may otherwise have never been aware of, and see tge similarities and the development and directions that the likes if Rube Goldberg took the style.
Happier? (History of Art, 101)
I looked here in the comments to see if anyone had mentioned Heath Robinson. .... As you have already, I will add that Heath Robinson's son used to be a monk at Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire.
Idk why but I saw it and I'm like "it's not useless it's just a fidget machine."
Low key want one now because of the satisfying sound.
Clinking sounds are so pleasing to the ears >~
Why don't you add a voice "Can You Don't?", or something like that, after 10-15 times switched on-off.
Can you not *
@@yamyam263 I like "Can you don't" more.
@@trashgarbage7234 lol, we can agree on that
DId i just watch some guy on the internet explain how useless a useless machine is ?
I like this and the thought and inspiration behind it. I'd like to see a more advanced version. One key element of Rube Goldberg's illustrations was that each part of the machine was very different than any other part. In the illustration at 1:26, the series of steps moves through levers, an animal, strings and pulleys, a rocket and a clock. I'd like to see a machine inspired by that variation that simply turns itself off.
I like to think of them as devices to confuse future archaeologists.
You are so right. And yet - they just solved the Antikythera mechanism, so there's still hope for the poor fellows.
Yo that's neat! Imagine if you put chime on every single lever and then each time you push the lever, it plays a song. Each lever plays a different song just like how the box do it. That would be cool!
@Bruh Just Another Malaysian or script/code/time it so it can play some music/song by using "tip tap" sound from clicking switch that would be interesting
It's an inspiring idea. Thanks for sharing 😊
I would love to have this one, to bad I know nothing about programming.
This is one of the most entertaining versions of the useless machine I've seen, but it doesn't really fit the Rube Goldberg spirit.
Indeed, the Rube Goldberg machines do something simple but usefull in a very complicated way, this thing does the opposite.
@@gustavthemagician So theoretically this is an "anti-Rube Goldberg" machine?
This is so cool. Bravo!
Thanks 😀
When I saw the thumbnail I thought you were going to have it cycle through binary until it overflows it's self off.
And then you realize the sign bit is really just simplification of twos complement arithmetic.
@@BigHackAttack wait would it never get to zero?
@@tentative_flora2690 your idea would work fine, assuming the run script was coded that way -- and no reason it couldn't be. Your comment flashed me back to my college days, where I had my two's complement epiphany. Pardon the stream of consciousness...
@@BigHackAttack I remember trying to learn twos compliment. But now I just kinda understand that there's a bit that tells me wether it's a negative number or not and I don't have to worry about it more then that.
The Goldbergs always inspire something useless.
When a "useless" machine is more impressive than any project you've ever done
😀
This made my day, thank you!
Thanks for sharing 😊
This should be on Two Minute Papers!
Have you seen the one by fxhm?
Why?
I think there is a Japanese version of this but it will throw a tantrum if you keep turning it on
Him: presses switch*
The contraption: n o .
I’ll take one. Where do I send the check?
I love that you mentioned the This Too Shall Pass video!! OK GO has some awesome music videos, but that one is my favorite because it was all shot in one take, and the excitement and satisfaction of the crew at the end is awesome :) that’s what I love about Rube Goldberg machines in general - watching people get to the very end on their first try that made it all the way through and celebrating their success!
Totally agree with you - the human reaction is more fascinating than the machine itself.
Well, yes but actually no. It is one continuous shot, but there were a _lot_ of takes, as evidenced by the large number of busted CRT TVs.
I would hook it up to a light bulb or lamp. Tell someone if they can make the light stay on I’ll give you $20. I’d have this payed off in no time...
It feels alive and now I'm emotionally attached and I want one as a pet
Love it and the whole principle, but wouldnt running off the processor be kinda cheating? I mean yeah, elaborate in code, but in a simple execution? Shouldn't it have some kind of baroque clockwork inside or something?
Still, love both versions, just being nitpicky👏👍😄
Thanks 😄. I thought a lot about this. The initial design did not include a microcontroller - I thought about using internal state switches to control the movement of each motor. But the more I thought about it I had more and more scripts that I wanted the box to perform. I thought about installing a rotary switch to choose a script, but had too many scripts in mind. I even considered using different short plugs to control different scripts. Eventually, I gave up - we're living in the 21st century - a microcontroller is better than a multistate rotary switch or a box full of short plugs. As long as the microcontroller turns on when a switch is flipped and turns off on the last switch flip, then the machine is a "true" useless machine. I wrote 47 different scripts for the box to perform. I couldn't do it with a rotary switch or short plugs.
I could probably entertain my weed smoking friends for hours with this.
Sounds dangerously close to a use. You don’t want to invalidate all good hard work, do you?
This is a work of art! 👌 I love all the patterns.
Thank you so much for sharing. That's exactly how I feel 😊
This is incredibly well done. As someone who is also fascinated by Rube Goldberg machines, seeing this pretty much evoked the same feeling I had when I first saw Starry Night. Art.
Thank you very much for sharing 😃
Coolest useless machine I’ve ever seen
Thanks for sharing 😊
This is definitely one of the better ideas for it
Thanks 😊
Ok, you should start selling these things! Some of us don't know electrical work!
I am a commercial industrial electrician. This isn't about electrical work, trust me!!! That's programming. Not just a different ball game but a different sport all together!
@@bad74maverick1damn it, well back to the drawing board then!
@@donaldmatthies6026 sorry to burst the bubble. I'm here because I want one too!
@@bad74maverick1 no worries! That is usually how life goes!
I REALLY want a video in which you explain exactly how I can build this machine myself! 😍
A building instruction for a little Nerd 😋
This random video on my recommended got so many crossovers with me realizing that Mumbo Jumbo's Useless Machines is actually a thing irl (not by his name ofcourse), and it was used in my favourite OK GO's music video. Madness
I am just say Wow :) greetings from Poland :)
Dziękuję Ci 😊
@@pazhameiri3429 proszę :) pozdrawiam :)
Paz, you have written that you plan to release salient details that will enable others to make this brilliant embodiment and amplification of the Minsky idea. Please, please do! I must have one!
I've never felt more emotionally connected to a machine.
It’s all fun in games till it starts moving on it’s own
This is a great video for UA-cam random recommendations.
We just have to wait five years to see it again.
I could watch it all day
This isn't really the same as rube goldberg. Sure, it takes extra steps, but those steps aren't required within the device. A simple code change could make it turn off immediately without the extra fluff
That thing is so stupidly useless....
I'll take 7
I want one!
No, I want TWO. Each one turns the other off.
😄
I love the timings of the switching, outstanding!
Thanks 😊
Great craftsmanship and programming.
But it does bring up the discussion I have had with my brother while making our own (far simpler) useless box.
How many extra actions until there is an added value of entertainment or function which makes the useless machine no longer useless or have no purpose.
I think that that's the beauty of choreography - The beauty is in the ensemble of movement and rhythm and symmetry and expectations. Same thing with music. It's all in our minds.
Is the code. / designs available for this please ?
Thanks for showing interest. I need to improve the documentation before releasing it. I'm working on another project, so It will take me some time to do so.
@@pazhameiri3429 I'm very interested in 3D print one, and expand it to an even more complicated funtionality.. mostly because i can, your code examples and diagrams would be wonderful! Thanks!
This is a Kafka machine. Flip a switch and a complicated dance of achieving absolutely nothing happens.
😀
@@pazhameiri3429 Hello, great video & fun machine 😄 How much would you want for a copy of the one shown in the video?
The only thing is, this isn’t useless
I could be entertained for hours just messing with the switches
No matter how many times I've flipped the switches, it's still entertaining 😃
This looks like a machine that has a personality. I love it.
Thanks for sharing 😄
Reminds me of the Repubicans in the U.S. House of Representatives right now, overly complicated & completely useless - except as content for the opening monologues of late night TV hosts.
This is like my wife, always undoing anything I do. They should rename this as the nagging wife machine!
I think you've missed the mark on what is normally perceived as "inspired by" or influenced. Calling this rube-goldberg inspired is tenuous at best.
You probably already know Joseph's Machines, but it's a UA-cam channel just about Rube Goldberg machines.
Be careful, you're approaching the "not so useless machine" zone. From there it will be really easy to accidentally step into the usefulness realm, from which there is no turning back.
Can you give us the circuit drawing? I would like to make my own
I intend to release the schematics and the code. I first need to improve the documentation, but I'm busy at the moment with another project.
Awesome!!! Bravo sir! I want one. Is it for sale?
Thanks. It is not for sale.