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| Automata: The Extraordinary "Robots" Designed Hundreds Of Years Ago (Page 1/1) |
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TheDigitalAlchemist
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SEP 28, 03:43 PM
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There's a lot I didn't know about this topic... history and politics involved... This documentary is good - camerawork, music, script...good stuff.
Documentary presented by Professor Simon Schaffer which charts the amazing and untold story of automata - extraordinary clockwork machines designed hundreds of years ago to mimic and recreate life. The film brings the past to life in vivid detail as we see how and why these masterpieces were built. Travelling around Europe, Simon uncovers the history of these machines and shows us some of the most spectacular examples, from an entire working automaton city to a small boy who can be programmed to write and even a device that can play chess. All the machines Simon visits show a level of technical sophistication and ambition that still amazes today.
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maryjane
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SEP 28, 10:49 PM
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TheDigitalAlchemist
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SEP 29, 07:55 AM
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Hafta re-watch that one. Kid. Key. Clock. Gears. Subway station. Yeah, that’s what I remember from that one. 😉
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maryjane
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SEP 29, 11:12 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by TheDigitalAlchemist:
Hafta re-watch that one. Kid. Key. Clock. Gears. Subway station. Yeah, that’s what I remember from that one. 😉 |
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Steam locomotive Trains. not a subway. Gare Montparnasse but recreated as period look in a London studio and sound set since the original station was torn down and new modern looking train station built in it's place. But, the train wreck in the movie is 'kinda' accurate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...tparnasse_derailment
https://soundlandscapes.wor...asse-and-its-sounds/[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 09-29-2023).]
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82-T/A [At Work]
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SEP 29, 02:11 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by TheDigitalAlchemist:
There's a lot I didn't know about this topic... history and politics involved... This documentary is good - camerawork, music, script...good stuff.
Documentary presented by Professor Simon Schaffer which charts the amazing and untold story of automata - extraordinary clockwork machines designed hundreds of years ago to mimic and recreate life. The film brings the past to life in vivid detail as we see how and why these masterpieces were built. Travelling around Europe, Simon uncovers the history of these machines and shows us some of the most spectacular examples, from an entire working automaton city to a small boy who can be programmed to write and even a device that can play chess. All the machines Simon visits show a level of technical sophistication and ambition that still amazes today.
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This stuff is so cool to me. A few years ago... I discovered that such a thing existed as a mechanical watch. Now, before anyone makes fun of me, I had a manual wind Mickey Mouse watch when I was a LITTLE kid. My parents also always had a grandfather clock too, AND... I'd spent a lot of time when I was 19-20 rebuilding carburetors that I would buy from the junkyard and selling on eBay... so I understood that things like this could exist.
But like... only 6 years ago, I went looking for a watch battery for a watch my parents gave me when I turned 21. It was a Wenger, no huge value to it, but it has sentimental value to me. When looking for an end-link for the watch strap, I discovered the exact same watch that I had, but that was offered as a mechanical version. Looking at the eBay pictures, I discovered it was all mechanical (had a display window in the back). I was FLOORED. I couldn't believe it. It started a hobby of buying and fixing watches.
But what really fascinates me is when you look at the transition we've made over the years from mechanical engineering to electrical engineering, to now AI engineering. Of course, we'll always need mechanical engineering... but we saw electrical engineering replace a lot of what mechanical engineering once did... and now, we see AI engineering replace a lot of what electrical engineering has done.
I don't want to call it a Venn-diagram, because it's not... but perhaps overlapping concentric circles of skill that's evolving over time with technology, and it's fascinating. The girl automaton in the video that's drawing the dog is just amazing... and over 300 years old!
Totally random, but I'm equally fascinated by the extremely ancient-looking woodwork behind the professor's chair in the intro, as I am the rest of the video! Haha...
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