FACTUAL REFERENCE
CLOCKWORK AUTOMATA

Mechanical automata are self-moving figures or devices whose actions are driven
by mechanisms such as clockwork, gears, cams, springs, and linkages.

European automata were associated with clocks from an early period, but courtly
and domestic pieces often existed to astonish as much as to serve a practical
purpose. Moving figures crossed tables, performed gestures, or participated in
miniature mechanical theater.

A key idea is SEQUENCE ENCODING.

A rotating cam can lift a lever at one point, release it at another, and thereby
turn a continuous rotation into a choreography of discrete motions. Multiple
cams can coordinate multiple joints. The result may look lifelike even though the
behavior is rigidly mechanical.

That does not make every automaton a computer. It does make the machine a physical
program of sorts: shape and arrangement determine action.