Ripley’s favorite phrase this week has been “what’s this?” which he mostly says about food, but also sometimes just to get us talking about whatever’s in our hands. If he says “what’s this?” while holding something in his feet, we tell him about whatever he’s holding.
Just now he started asking “what’s this? what’s this? what’s this?” while staring worriedly behind the couch. I said “I dunno” because I wasn’t sure if he was actually asking about anything in particular. Maybe he meant the couch? The darkness behind it? The marimo next to the couch?
Then he said, “it’s wood?” which I figured he was saying because I had been making him a toy from wood blocks a moment ago. So I said, “I’m not holding wood anymore.”
But he kept staring intently over the arm of the couch, so I had to go over and see what he meant.
‘The Writer,’ 1 of 3 surviving automata
from the 18th century, is a programmable
boy that uses quill and ink to write any 40
letters of custom text. This 240-year-old
automaton uses all 6,000 of its parts to
create just enough pressure for fluid,
elegant writing, and is thought by
some to be the first computer. Source
This is truly a masterpiece of engineering from an early age. So amazing!
okay LOOK. I understand that on a purely mechanical and engineering level that this is an incredible piece but if scifi and fantasy media has taught me anything it’s that this motherfucker is haunted af and probably writes out gruesome deaths that mysteriously end up coming to pass thanks but NO THANKS BYE
computer science major here, i’m with haunted guy
Writer is actually one of a set language of three! The other ones play the organ:
ifesbob 