[HN Gopher] The Incredible Machine (1968) [video]
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       The Incredible Machine (1968) [video]
        
       Author : syndicatedjelly
       Score  : 60 points
       Date   : 2024-10-23 06:24 UTC (16 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | noufalibrahim wrote:
       | I started work and abandoned a small clone of this wonderful game
       | a long time ago
       | 
       | https://github.com/nibrahim/Devious-machinations
        
         | mckirk wrote:
         | Note that this is about a documentary about the human body from
         | 1975 (according to Wikipedia), not the video game that was
         | released in 1993.
         | 
         | (Though for me the game definitely also was the first
         | association.)
        
           | wyldfire wrote:
           | This is not a documentary about the human body. It's about
           | computers, Bell Labs.
        
             | mckirk wrote:
             | Well, I stand corrected, thanks. Apparently there are too
             | many things called 'The Incredible Machine'.
             | 
             | I just clicked on the video for a second and the first
             | image it showed still seemed to fit the 'human body' topic,
             | because at a glance it looked like some kind of ultrasonic
             | scanner.
        
               | dangsux wrote:
               | Which could all have been solved by actually clicking the
               | link.
        
               | mckirk wrote:
               | I did click the link, as I said.
        
       | cassianoleal wrote:
       | I initially thought this was going to be about the awesome 90s
       | game [0]. Was a bit puzzled by the date in brackets but I was
       | wrong in my assumption.
       | 
       | [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTbSMKGQ_rU
        
         | wyldfire wrote:
         | I also assumed it was about the game. It is seared into my
         | youthful memories.
        
           | m12k wrote:
           | Casey's Contraptions is a mobile game highly inspired by The
           | Incredible Machine
        
         | MacAndSmeg wrote:
         | The greatest game ever created, surprised people don't talk
         | about it more!!
        
         | neuronexmachina wrote:
         | Same. TIM's designer/coder Kevin Ryan actually made a spiritual
         | successor called Contraption Maker, it's pretty fun and still
         | has regular updates:
         | https://store.steampowered.com/app/241240/Contraption_Maker/
        
           | cassianoleal wrote:
           | Thanks! Purchased immediately. :D
        
         | moffkalast wrote:
         | I remember one of the sequels [0], it seemed to often devolve
         | into blowing up vast amounts of airships and nitroglycerine,
         | haha.
         | 
         | [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY_cKZo51b8
        
         | 123pie123 wrote:
         | play it in your browser here:
         | 
         | https://www.myabandonware.com/game/the-incredible-machine-1m...
        
       | SeeManDo wrote:
       | They made it say NOICE
        
         | moffkalast wrote:
         | They didn't want their computer to freeze, ergo no ice.
        
       | ants_everywhere wrote:
       | Is it just me or do some of the people in this movie look like
       | they haven't slept an in a while and are just trying to hold it
       | together? They just kind of look like they're under a lot of
       | pressure.
       | 
       | But it's a cool film. The rendition of Daisy Bell is what
       | inspired HAL 9000 to sing the same song.
        
       | Shawnecy wrote:
       | This came out the same year as the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey"
       | and at the 10 minute mark in the video they have a program
       | "singing" the same song as HAL 9000 in the movie, "Daisy Bell".
       | 
       | I wonder who inspired who, assuming it's not just a coincidence.
        
         | TomWhitwell wrote:
         | From Wikipedia: In 1961, an IBM 7094 at Bell Labs was
         | programmed to sing "Daisy Bell" in the earliest demonstration
         | of computer speech synthesis... Science-fiction author Arthur
         | C. Clarke witnessed the IBM 704 demonstration during a trip to
         | Bell Labs in 1962 and referred to it in the 1968 novel and film
         | 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which the HAL 9000 computer sings
         | "Daisy Bell" during its gradual deactivation.[13]
        
       | tsumnia wrote:
       | Despite picking up computers at a young age, that was in 1995,
       | nearly 3 decades after this moment. It still blows my mind at
       | what we've been able to do with the power to simulate and
       | visualize everything around us. It's something I do think "modern
       | society" takes for granted - that there's so much about the world
       | that we JUST learned about, or at least finally had a way to
       | translate theories into a format digestible to everyone.
       | 
       | I wonder how as we learn to design out large scale AI systems
       | future generations will think about how obvious they are to them
       | but were actually revolutionary to us. For example if the multi-
       | LLM agent simulations we're seeing with Interactive Simulacra[1]
       | will spark new theories about how we should communicate with each
       | other.
       | 
       | [1] https://github.com/joonspk-research/generative_agents
        
       | srott wrote:
       | They had to develop Figmas precursor in order to make that video.
        
       | mcursa wrote:
       | re: early computer graphics check out john whitney
       | (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIv-EcX9tUs)
        
       | notorandit wrote:
       | The real incredible thing is the "automatically generated
       | subtitles". Try enabling them and watch the video again, Those
       | need to be created by some AI, I guess.
        
       | tralarpa wrote:
       | So many techniques shown in the video: graphics cursor, toolbar,
       | menubar, click&drag, rubberband
        
       | animal_spirits wrote:
       | This film is great because it not only illustrates the wonderful
       | abilities of early computers but also emphasizes the humans who
       | build them. Something I don't see as a focal point nowadays
        
         | CalRobert wrote:
         | I seem to recall software having credits in the eighties and
         | nineties
        
           | layer8 wrote:
           | This having stopped is partly a side-effect of the "eternal
           | beta" state of software.
        
           | cryptoz wrote:
           | "Thomas Knoll" is forever imprinted in my memory.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Related. Others?
       | 
       |  _The Incredible Machine (1968) [video]_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11219180 - March 2016 (5
       | comments)
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36689982 (July 2023)
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7759856 (May 2014)
        
       | lysace wrote:
       | "The Mother of All Demos" by Douglas Engelbart and his team at
       | SRI happened the same year. It was done live.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nm47PFALc8
       | 
       | It included:
       | 
       | - A pointing device (the first mouse)
       | 
       | - A GUI
       | 
       | - Hypertext
       | 
       | - Word processing
       | 
       | - Collaborative real-time editing of a document
       | 
       | - Video conferencing
       | 
       | - File sharing
        
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       (page generated 2024-10-23 23:00 UTC)