Innovation
Photos: Cold War ZX Spectrum clones spawned behind the Iron Curtain
Correspondent Jennifer Riggins visits a small Spanish museum bursting with creativity.
An eight-year-old MIBA regular, after high-fiving the clerk, plays with the "Useless Machine," calling it "La cosa mas estupida del mundo" ("The stupidest thing in the world"), while explaining to anyone who'll listen how it works and expertly taking it apart to reveal the mechanism and battery that makes the box open and close at the flick of a switch.
This MIBA best-seller was invented by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's artificial intelligence laboratory co-founder Marvin Minsky in 1952 in response to being asked to create the "ultimate machine." According to Torres, when sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke saw the machine, he was fascinated by it. "There is something unspeakably sinister about a machine that does nothing -- absolutely nothing -- except switch itself off," wrote Clark.
Photo: Jennifer K. Riggins
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.comCaption by: Jennifer Riggins
Join Discussion