a fairly simple exercise in conditional logic, straightforward enough to reproduce between the start of the talk and the unveiling of the machine. perhaps i'll provide this as an exercise to my students later.

of course, there's a lot of inefficiencies here - no need for the metal yardstick to be so wide, and the lock mechanism is visibly awkward and stuck on. it's just two machines put together with a switch; if it was designed as one, perhaps it wouldn't be so wasteful, but that would defeat the point.

this whole concept is a waste of time and engineering effort, even this scrappy solution gives it more attention than it deserves.

- from alchemist luna's correspondence with a colleague