Ultimate Machine

Claude Shannon's very cool, creepy machine:

From http://lightbucket.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/claude-shannon-really-ought-to-be-more-famous/:

Shannon introduced powerful, simplifying, enormously useful new concepts that transformed electronics and communications. For his own amusement, though, he could also go to the opposite extreme. He built an elaborate mechanical contraption called the “Ultimate Machine”, whose sole function was to switch itself off – it is perhaps the most perfectly pointless machine conceivable. I’ll let Arthur C. Clarke explain it:

“Nothing could be simpler. It is merely a small wooden casket, the size and shape of a cigar box, with a single switch on one face. When you throw the switch, there is an angry, purposeful buzzing. The lid slowly rises, and from beneath it emerges a hand. The hand reaches down, turns the switch off and retreats into the box. With the finality of a closing coffin, the lid snaps shut, the buzzing ceases and peace reigns once more. The psychological effect, if you do not know what to expect, is devastating. There is something unspeakably sinister about a machine that does nothing – absolutely nothing – except switch itself off.”

Arthur C. Clarke, Voice Across the Sea

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