The Machine Paradox

A week of learning to break down useful machines and building useless machines

What's it about?

We pick out some broken machines and learn how to take them apart in ways that we can use the parts to build a completely new machine that serves a completely different purpose. A week of hacking, coding and figuring out that the course is meant to be called The Paradox Machine but we just went alone with the literal Spanish translation word-to-word. 

Refelction

I loved this seminar. It was the perfect way to introduce the course to me specifically because it was a fun way to dip my toes into topics that I know nothing about. Coding, Electronics, Mechanics. I learned about stepper motors and how to code their movement. Thank you Mikel. He also taught me how to code to make it pick a random value. As a person who has never coded, it really helped to break into a world that I felt was impenetrable to someone with my qualifications.
I liked being freely allowed to break open things and see how they work. This is something I have loved to do since I was a child so I was happy to learn the right way to do it, the right tools to use, the right sensors and scales to test their accuracy and with the right guidance. I am happy to have this skill and i hope to improve it.
I liked helping my teammates and the way we were able to help and contribute in different ways. Making the code work and the machine start on time was repetitive and irritating but we got through it long enough to demonstrate it so I am happy. I enjoyed trying to find the errors even though I did not always succeed. 

Forensic Report

Details of the original 3D Printer

LifeX

A machine that can predict one's life expectancy