- Kentucky Do Nothing Machine
- Do Nothing Machine Kit
- Overly Complex Machines That Do Nothing
- Do Nothing Machine Amazon
A modern 'useless machine' about to turn itself off
In a Do-Nothing Machine, two sliders are confined to perpendicular channels and are connected by a rod. The rod can be rotated, causing the sliders to move back and forth in their respective channels. Suppose that the channels line up with the x- and y-directions,. 【Power saving】You can easily run the funny useless machine with only 3 “AA” batteries (not included), can be used a long time after updating power spent. Cute Size is 7.08.3.14.4.33 inch, weight is 1.05lb. 【100% refund】EASTBULL support lifetime warranty, every useless box is double tested before shipping to make sure the high quality. Wooden versions of the trammel of Archimedes have been produced also as toys or novelty items, and sold under the name of Kentucky do-nothings, nothing grinders, do nothing machines, smoke grinders, or bullshit grinders. In these toys the drafting instrument is replaced by a crank handle, and the position of the sliding shuttles is usually fixed. A Useful Invention? An Engineering Marvel? Here is a compilation of 10 most useless machines that are wonderful work of engineering but do nothing. Other Styles of Machines that Do Nothing. There are other modern-day Do-Nothing Machines in the form of showing how various mechanisms, such as cogs, wheels and pistons work. I have found several books on these machines and an occasional one here and there in other books. “Making Mechanical Marvels in Wood” by Raymond Levy, c.1991.
A useless machine, sometimes known as a 'useless box', is a device which has a function but no direct purpose. It may be intended to make a philosophical point, as an amusing engineering 'hack', or as an intellectual joke. Devices which have no function or which malfunction are not considered to be 'useless machines'.
The most well-known 'useless machines' are those inspired by Marvin Minsky's design, in which the device's sole function is to switch itself off by operating its own 'off' switch. More elaborate devices and novelty toys, having some obvious function or entertainment value, have been based on these simple 'useless machines'.
History[edit]
The Italian artist Bruno Munari began building 'useless machines' (macchine inutili) in the 1930s. He was a 'third generation' Futurist and did not share the first generation's boundless enthusiasm for technology, but sought to counter the threats of a world under machine rule by building machines that were artistic and unproductive.[1]
The version of the useless machine that became famous in information theory (basically a box with a simple switch which, when turned 'on', causes a hand or lever to appear from inside the box that switches the machine 'off' before disappearing inside the box again[2]) appears to have been invented by MIT professor and artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky, while he was a graduate student at Bell Labs in 1952.[3] Minsky dubbed his invention the 'ultimate machine', but that sense of the term did not catch on.[3] The device has also been called the 'Leave Me Alone Box'.[4]
Minsky's mentor at Bell Labs, information theory pioneer Claude Shannon (who later also became an MIT professor), made his own versions of the machine. He kept one on his desk, where science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke saw it. Clarke later wrote, 'There is something unspeakably sinister about a machine that does nothing—absolutely nothing—except switch itself off', and he was fascinated by the concept.[3]
Minsky also invented a 'gravity machine' that would ring a bell if the gravitational constant were to change, a theoretical possibility that is not expected to occur in the foreseeable future.[3]
Commercial products[edit]
In the 1960s, a novelty toy maker called 'Captain Co.' sold a 'Monster Inside the Black Box', featuring a mechanical hand that emerged from a featureless plastic black box and flipped a toggle switch, turning itself off. This version may have been inspired in part by 'Thing', the disembodied hand featured in the television sitcomThe Addams Family.[3] Other versions have been produced.[5] In their conceptually purest form, these machines do nothing except switch themselves off.
It is claimed that Don Poynter, who graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1949 and founded Poynter Products, Inc., first produced and sold the 'Little Black Box', which simply switched itself off. He then added the coin snatching feature, dubbed his invention 'The Thing', arranged licensing with the producers of the television show, The Addams Family, and later sold 'Uncle Fester's Mystery Light Bulb' as another show spinoff product.[6][7]Robert J. Whiteman, owner and president of Liberty Library Corporation, also claims credit for developing 'The Thing'.[8][9] (Both companies were later to be co-defendants in landmark litigation initiated by Theodor Geisel ('Dr. Seuss') over copyright issues related to figurines.)[10][6]
Both the plain black box and the bank version were widely sold by Spencer Gifts, and appeared in its mail-order catalogs through the 1960s and early 1970s. As of 2015, a version of the coin snatching black box is being sold as the 'Black Box Money Trap Bank' or 'Black Box Bank'.[citation needed]
Do-it-yourself versions of the useless machine (often modernized with microprocessor controls) have been featured in a number of web videos[11] and inspired more complex machines that are able to move or which use more than one switch.[12] As of 2015, there are several completed or kit form devices being offered for sale.[13]
Cultural references[edit]
In 2009, the artist David Moises exhibited his reconstruction of The Ultimate Machine aka Shannon's Hand, and explained the interactions of Claude Shannon, Marvin Minsky, and Arthur C. Clarke regarding the device.[14]
Episode 3 of the third season of the FX show Fargo, 'The Law of Non-Contradiction', features a useless machine[15] (and, in a story within the story, an android named MNSKY after Marvin Minsky).[16]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Munari, Bruno (15 September 2015). 'official website, 'Useless Machines''.
- ^Moises, David (15 September 2015). ''The Ultimate Machine nach Claude E. Shannon' (video)'.
- ^ abcdePesta, Abigail (12 March 2013). 'Looking for Something Useful to Do With Your Time? Don't Try This'. Wall Street Journal. p. 1. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
- ^Seedman, Michael. '(Homepage)'. Leave Me Alone Box. LeaveMeAloneBox. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^'Little Black Box'. Grand Illusions. Archived from the original on 29 January 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ abReiselman, Deborah (2012). 'Alum Don Poynter gains novelty reputation on campus and off'. UC Magazine. University of Cincinnati. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
- ^Cancilla, Sam. 'Little Black Box'. Sam's Toybox. Sam Cancilla. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
- ^'About'. Liberty: The Stories Never Die!. Liberty Library Corporation. 2012. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^Whitehill, Bruce. 'Bettye-B'. The Big Game Hunter. The Big Game Hunter. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^Nel, Philip (2003). 'The Disneyfication of Dr Seuss: faithful to profit, one hundred percent?'. Cultural Studies. Taylor and Francis, Ltd. 17 (5): 579–614. doi:10.1080/0950238032000126847. ISBN9780203643815.
- ^Seedman, Michael. 'What Others Have Done'. Leave Me Alone Box. LeaveMeAloneBox. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^Fiessler, Andreas. 'Useless Machine Advanced Edition'. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
- ^'[search results: 'useless machine kit']'. Amazon. Amazon.com. Retrieved 2015-03-11.
- ^Krausse, Joachim; et al. (2011). David Moises: Stuff Works (in English and German). Nürnberg: Verlag für moderne Kunst. pp. 30–31. ISBN978-3-86984-229-5.
- ^Travers, Ben (3 May 2017). ''Fargo' Review: Carrie Coon Heads to La La Land in Bananas Episode That Upends Expectations For Year 3'. Indiewire.
- ^Grubbs, Jefferson (3 May 2017). 'Is The Planet Wyh a Real Book? Fargo Features an Pulp Sci-Fi Hit'. Bustle.
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In 1950, Turing published 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence' in the Philosophic Journal Mind. In it, he proposed a method by which we might answer the question 'Can Machines Think?'. His idea — which he calls the 'imitation game' — is really quite simple.
The Imitation Game is played by three participants: the interrogator, a human subject, and an artificially intelligent machine. The three are in separate rooms, and can only communicate via teletype. The goal of the interrogator is to determine which participant is the machine. They are allowed to ask questions of any sort. Turing hypothesizes that by the end of the century (the 20th, that is), computers will exist that can play the machine so well that 'the average interrogator will not have more than a 70% chance of making the right identification after five minutes of questioning.' (442) He does not suggest that this test definitively settles the matter, but he does claim that if these conditions obtain, one could speak of machines thinking 'without expecting to be contradicted'.
He then lays out nine possible objections to the view that machines may be intelligent.
Turing's Objection's and Replies: | |
Theology | The objection claims that thinking is a function of the humans' immortal soul. Machines have no souls; therefore, they cannot think. Turing responds in two ways: first to note that if God is omnipotent, he could give souls to machines. Second, and more importantly, Turing's notes that a very similar argument was made against the Copernican theory of the movement of the planets. We rejected that argument in light of empirical evidence, and we should do the same in this case. |
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Heads in the Sand | This objection claims that the consequences of a machine thinking is too dreadful to contemplate; therefore, we should hope and believe that they can never do so. Turing's reply is simply to note that this objection, like the objection from Theology, is based on the idea that Humans are necessarily superior to everything else. And that is an empirical thesis, subject to test. |
Mathematics | This objection turns on results, due to Gödel and Turing, that no formal system or (fixed, i.e. unchanging) machine can generate all arithmetical truths. Take, for example, the statement 'This statement cannot be generated by a fixed machine'. If the statement can be generated, the statement is false, and the Turing machine has proven a false statement. If the statement cannot be generated, the statement is true, but therefore escapes the scope of that Turing machine. The objection continues: human intelligence is not so limited; therefore, logical systems and machines cannot be intelligent. In response, Turing makes two points: the first is to question the premise that human intelligence is not limited in this way. According to Turing, we do not know if human intelligence is limited or not, and one way to determine if the machine is limited in precisely the same way as human intelligence is the already proposed Turing Test. The second is to note that a machine that is capable of inventing its own method of proof, or its own rules of syntactic processing, would be capable of generating all the arithmetic truths. Of course, it would also be capable of making mistakes. But, of course, so are we. |
Consciousness | The argument from consciousness proceeds as follows: No machine can have emotions, feel pleasure, grief, depression, etc. Intelligent humans clearly do. Therefore, machines cannot be intelligent. Turing's response is to claim that this argument is a denial of the validity of the Turing test itself. If a machine can talk intelligently about, say, a sonnet that it has composed, that that machine would be intelligent. After all, discussion about such feelings with other humans is the only evidence we have that they feel in the same way we do. If we are unwilling to attribute consciousness to a machine in such a scenario, we must also be unwilling to attribute consciousness to other humans. Turing's response here is interesting, but somewhat unsatisfying. The argument from consciousness has become one of the central problems in the philosophy of mind in recent years, and philosophers like David Chalmers are perfectly willing to allow that there may be people who look and act just as we do, but have no conscious states. These 'zombies', as Chalmers calls them, might be equivalent to any machine that can pass the Turing test. |
Various Disabilities | This argument takes the form 'Not until a machine can do X, can it be said to be intelligent', where X is one of 'be kind, have a sense of humor, fall in love, enjoy strawberries, make mistakes, etc. Turing responds that none of these argument have any support, and all seem to be grounded in mere induction. In certain cases (like 'enjoying strawberries'), the objection is really a version of the argument from consciousness. The 'make mistakes' disability is of particular interest. Why should a machine be punished because it might be better at Math than a human? |
Lady Lovelace | Lady Lovelace, who, with Charles Babbage, invented the first mechanistic calculator made the following claim: 'The Analytic Engine has no pretensions to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform'. Intelligent humans perform original actions, and create original objects. Therefore, machines cannot be intelligent. Turing's response is that machines often do take their creators by surprise, and this surprising result can be analogous to original thinking. Later thinkers have been unconvinced by Turing's response. Many more recent AI theorist have argued that an intelligent machine's machines tables should include some sort of probabilistic calculation, thereby allowing for original, unexpected results. |
Continuity of the Nervous System | This argument claims that there is a disanalogy between Turing machines and the Nervous system, and that this disanalogy is so great, that no intelligent machine would ever be possible. Turing's response is simple: yes, that's true, but if the machine passed the Turing test, would it matter? Turing is arguing here for a kind of primitive thesis of multiple-realizability. According to the thesis of multiple-realizability, or, at least a functionalist version of the multiple realizability thesis, what matters for intelligence is not the physical make up of the intelligent thing, but rather the fact that the thing functions in much the same way we do: including acting a certain way given a certain condition, having internal states in response to a certain input condition, etc. Turing's point is simply to press on the fact that the way in which the intelligent machine is physically put together should not change our intuitions regarding machines that can pass the test. |
Informality of Behavior | This argument claims that we do not know of a set of rules that will govern all human behavior, but in order to create an intelligent machine, you must create just such a set of rules. Turing's response is to note the difference between knowing about such a set of rules and there actually being such rules. There may be such rules, even if they are outside of the realm of current understanding. Again, it is worth noting that this objection is part of what inspired the neural network modelers to seek an alternate way of modeling intelligence. |
ESP | This argument is simple: intelligent humans possess ESP, machines do not. Therefore, machines can't be intelligent. Surprisingly, Turing takes this argument quite seriously. But, he notes, the only way to prove ESP would be by empirical test, and any such test could be given to an artificial intelligence as well. |
Which of the objections do you find the strongest? The weakest? Are Turing's responses satisfactory?
Alan Turing is easily one of the most fascinating people in the history of Computer Science. In addition to developing the Turing machine and proposing the Turing test, he was largely responsible for breaking the Nazi's code during WWII. In 1954, he committed suicide after being convicted of committing homosexual acts and sentenced to not only lose his military clearance, but also to undergo a course of estrogen injections. There is some controversy over his death - Turing's mother always contended that his death was not suicide, but rather an accidental overdose due to poor laboratory techniques. And there is some evidence that she might have been right. Click here to learn more about Alan Turing.
There have been a number of different programs that attempt to pass the Turing test. Take a moment to try some of these out, and see if you can determine if the respondent is a human or a computer. Little caesars centre al.
Kentucky Do Nothing Machine
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Do Nothing Machine Kit
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Overly Complex Machines That Do Nothing
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