Comments on: Automata are mechanical objects endowed with life.

Automata are mechanical objects endowed with life.

Dave Faris — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:07:09 -0800

Michael has a large collection of automata. Some are sort of creepy.

(more vids on youtube.)

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:08:29 -0800

Yup. Those are nightmare fuel.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:14:42 -0800

There's a scene towards the end of Blade Runner, where Pris sits doll-like in a room of automata. There's definitely a creepy vibe about these things, especially when they start laughing and shaking.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:15:05 -0800

My wife would divorce me if I brought that harpist home. I think it's cool though (and creepy).

By: infinitywaltz

infinitywaltz — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:17:58 -0800

Some of them are really quite lovely.

By: C.Batt

C.Batt — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:20:35 -0800

You forgot a tag: Automatonophobia.

By: infinitywaltz

infinitywaltz — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:24:57 -0800

Yeah, but this monkey is creepier than an army of desiccated robot harpists.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:38:36 -0800

wow, what a great find - fascinating yet freaky. Put one of these heads on that damn darpa dog robot to create a technological nightmare spanning two centuries.

By: mrzarquon

mrzarquon — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:45:22 -0800

Wow those things are creepy. I kind of want one, or more specifically, ones with eyes that will follow my millionaire mentally unstable uncle who has left me as his only heir, around his creaky old house up in the woods. also Metafilter: a technological nightmare spanning two centuries

By: tula

tula — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:49:28 -0800

Kitty wants some milk. (I love stuff like this; thanks so much for the post.)

By: Tube

Tube — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:59:52 -0800

I want an automata replica of the Zuni fetish doll that tormented Karen Black in Trilogy of Terror.

By: Bookhouse

Bookhouse — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:15:39 -0800

Yeah, but this monkey is creepier than an army of desiccated robot harpists. AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

By: Bookhouse

Bookhouse — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:16:12 -0800

Oh, and great post.

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:22:04 -0800

What the flag is that monkey waving?- hard to see on the clip. Texas Rangers? Texas Air National Guard? Yale?

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:56:37 -0800

THIS POST IS REALLY SOMETHING SPECIAL MISTER LAWSON

By: Karlos the Jackal

Karlos the Jackal — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:18:19 -0800

If I could have every menial task in my daily life performed by dessicated automatons, I totally would.

By: mistersquid

mistersquid — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:46:27 -0800

I can't help but think of the bejewelled head by Lady Marie-France Tessier.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:39:56 -0800

I just piddled in my pants. Truly spoooky post, DF!

By: wabbittwax

wabbittwax — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:23:45 -0800

But, does he have an Obamaton?

By: Cat Pie Hurts

Cat Pie Hurts — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:29:07 -0800

Gagging demon cat with phantom skele-twin was my favorite.

By: Pastabagel

Pastabagel — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:07:10 -0800

Automata previously on Metafilter That post credits Al-Jazari with the first automaton, however, the moving statutes of Byzantium are legendary, and today the credit probably goes to Hero of Alexandria (wiki), who also happened to invent the world's first steam-powered device (though technically it is not an engine). Automata are not complex from an engineering standpoint, (though they are intricate and complicated) are realized almost exclusively with gears and linkages, with the addition of spring coils and winders in the 18th and 19th century. While the linkage generally was not understood until the 1800's, the crank, which is a minimal linkage, was understood in the 1200's, and by then people had been experimenting with them crudely for centuries. Because the range of motion of the human body is defined by linkages, it is conceivable that cranks and linkages could have been realized in antiquity simply by duplicating the proportions and structure of the human body, and replacing the musculature with gears and pulleys, both of which we well known by the time of the ancient greeks and romans. (The pulley dating at least as far back as mesopotamia, and the gear probably shortly thereafter, as a gear constitutes a ropeless pulley). By the first century BC, the Greeks at least had developed considerable sophistication in machining and designing with gears, as represented by the Antikythera device. Once you are possessed of knowledge of one working linkage and gears, building a complicated piece of machinery is reduced to a function of time, patience and materials.

By: aramaic

aramaic — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:10:45 -0800

I'm so fond of this kind of thing that I may have to go lie down.

By: Pastabagel

Pastabagel — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:18:01 -0800

I want to amend what I wrote above - Hero's steam device is not an engine as the term is used today which encompasses output mechanisms that performing work in addition to the prime mover itself. However, it certainly fits the broad definition of engine, particularly as that term was used prior to the Industrial Revolution. Given the time, Hero's work was remarkable, and only underscores the extent to which science and engineering languished during the dark ages.

By: cass

cass — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:50:10 -0800

Would you pay $6 million for one?

By: the quidnunc kid

the quidnunc kid — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:07:22 -0800

Hero's work was remarkable Too true, Pastabagel! And, it is fitting that Hero of Alexandria is remembered in our language, through lending his name as an epithet to all those brave pioneers who boldy strike out in new directions, and who justly win the praise of the crowd. Even now, when we want to highlight the life of an outstanding leader and thinker, we simply say that the person was "a fucking little smart Alex".

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:08:10 -0800

Whoo boy, some wonderful day I'm going to settle down in that little corner of the Uncanny Valley.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:09:11 -0800

Oh man...now I want them. All of them. Must resist temptation to start new insanely expensive collection hobby.

By: misha

misha — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:17:57 -0800

Wow. Another fantastic FPP?! I am going to run out of favorites today. Now, someone make post an atomaton ceiling cat that plays drums, and I can die happy.

By: vytae

vytae — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:11:14 -0800

Does this have something to do with Turing machines? Cellular automata definitely gave me nightmares during that one semester of college... Oh wait, these are way better. Yay!

By: malocchio

malocchio — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:37:30 -0800

WANT.

By: deborah

deborah — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:39:19 -0800

This is the stuff of nightmares.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:36:32 -0800

"I make friends. They're toys. My friends are toys. I make them. It's a hobby."

By: donnagirl

donnagirl — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:24:14 -0800

Awesomely lovely/creepy post! Seeing the automaton that writes brought back a fuzzy memory of a book I loved in grade school about a girl and a mystery she solved using clues from several automata. One wrote words, one had something to do with music...I can't remember any more, and I can't find it in Worldcat with such sketchy details, but I'm seized with the desire to find the book and read it. If it doesn't sound familiar to any of you, I'm headed to AskMe.