What is your favorite machine, fictional or otherwise?

[mix]

[HopeHoops]

1. The toaster oven.

[mix]

7. in the category of counter appliances

I would also rate the toaster oven high, along with the panini maker and expresso machine.

[kayakjohnny]

2. I'm still pretty big on

the jetpack.

Decades of disappointment aside.

[mix]

12. they look really fun

as does this

[kayakjohnny]

19. Yes, they are making progress...

However, the average joekayaksixpackjohnnylunchbox middle american still doesn't have access to them.

And rightly so, most likely.

Those things look dangerous.

Not to mention, a bit pricey.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. The dishwasher.

[mix]

15. in that category, i deeply appreciate the washer and dryer nt

[AsahinaKimi]

4. BIG O!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdA6iRk94Hc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Myh07ybceU

[dysfunctional press]

9. and i thought you meant the orgasmatron from 'sleepers'

[AsahinaKimi]

13. lol

Watch my clips.. I love that anime Big O!

[sakabatou]

37. I didn't like the ending.

Kind of a disappointment.

[Iggo]

39. "I'll show you the power of my Big!"

"One of these Bigs has got to go!"

That is choice.:rofl:

[sakabatou]

74. "Big O, it's show time!"

[sakabatou]

36. I remember that on CN

Big Duo Inferno: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3dk1qXYMZ4&feature=related

[JTG of the PRB]

81. +1,000,000

I loved that show. It didn't always (or at all) make a lot of sense, but damn... Giant mysterious robots fighting each other on a weekly basis? Friggin' sweet!

[Graybeard]

5. The 'Stargate" portal.

Sci-fi, Egyptology and goofy mumbo jumbo.

[mix]

86. I always liked the Stargate premise, plus they speak some form of Berber. nt

[surrealAmerican]

6. the Jacquard loom ...

... an absolute marvel of 19th century technology

[mix]

10. very interesting

:thumbsup:

[EOTE]

59. Luddite!

Just kidding. The Lacquard loom is a rather amazing device, decades ahead of its time.

[AngryAmish]

8. Frankie Machine

[dysfunctional press]

11. it's a toss-up between a replicator and a time machine...

a time machine with a built-in replicator.

[Frank Cannon]

14. Doc Brown's DeLorean

[mix]

16. that was genius

:thumbsup:

[LostInAnomie]

17. Cherry 2000

The Sentinals

The Holo-deck

[Mad_Dem_X]

49. Non-fiction: The computer. Fiction: HAL-9000.

[mix]

51. finally, someone says the greatest machine of all time!

the 'puter, as my 3 year nephew calls it

[dixiegrrrrl]

95. I 3rd that. Most life changing machine, to me at least.

How did I ever get along without it?

[Kutjara]

18. Babbage's Difference Engine

A thing of beauty.

[mix]

20. Beautiful.

It reminded me of this, another favorite machine of mine, Antikythera, 2nd century BC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

[Kutjara]

22. That is wonderful, and also a sad reminder...

...of the scientific knowledge and precision toolmaking skills we lost for the next 1,700 years.

[RevCheesehead]

21. Data

[mix]

23. I've always liked him too. nt

[Kali]

24. star trek transporter

when are we gonna get those? huh?

personally, the cpap machine has saved my life

[mix]

25. The transporter fascinated me too, and

it was still kinda dangerous, sometimes it didn't really work right...

:hi:

[Kali]

32. more reliable than any of our vehicles!

and probably just needed some percussive maintenance or some duct tape/baling wire:rofl:

It would be so much fun to play around with it - better than peeps in the microwave, I bet!

[rcrush]

40. I think the transporter kills you every time you use it.

It copies you and sends your copy to the destination and then it kills you!

[Auggie]

48. It's on my wish list

[JTG of the PRB]

82. Without the Heisenberg Compensators, the transporter would be useless!

If they didn't compensate for Heisenber's Uncertainty Principle, every time we used a transporter our molecules would be scattered across the universe! As soon as they invent the Heisenberg Compensator, we'll be in business for a transporter!

I hope they invent it soon.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

26. The Wayback Machine

ala Peabody and Sherman..........

[mix]

29. i too loved the WABAC Machine!

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

98. Too funny,

when I saw the title of this post, the Wayback Machine is Exactly what i thought of.

I'd use it as my own personal "do over" machine. With all the stupid stuff I do, it'd get lots of use. :)

[bluedigger]

27. Guttenberg's printing press

It had as big an impact on the course of history as any other machine ever, if not the biggest.

[cynatnite]

28. The replicator...

can make anything!

[jobycom]

30. Bubo

[Love Bug]

31. The TARDIS!

Especially if the 10th Doctor is in it!

[baldguy]

33. The Starship Bistromath

from Life, the Universe and Everything.

[havocmom]

34. Device for reading in bed from a Heinlein novel

It projects page on your ceiling so you don't have to hold book. Monitor follows your eye movement, turning pages as you get to bottom of page, or shutting it down when you fall asleep.


I want that one. Tired of waking up startled from books falling on my face!

[RushIsRot]

35. The can-opener. It certainly gets the most use.

[MilesColtrane]

38. The low C extension on my bass.

Made out of brass and ebony it really has a steampunk vibe to it.

[Heidi]

44. Oh!

That's BEAUTIFUL! :thumbsup:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

84. Guess that makes you a REAL bass player.

The big guys at the Symphony have those.

Note: Violinist/piano player/singer here. Formerly engaged to two viola players (consecutive), formerly married to one piano/organ/cello player, formerly married to one string bass/tuba player, and presently hooked up with a rock n roll guitarist whom I have inflicted lots of classical and other weird music upon.

Fiddlers are one of my target demographics or offender profiles, as you see.



I suppose this applies to you too!
"He was a fiddler, and consequently a rogue." -- Jonathan Swift

[rcrush]

41. Star Trek sex holosuite

Obviously.

[Tabasco_Dave]

42. The money printing press at the Federal Reserve Bank

I'd love to have one.

[Heidi]

43. Manual typewriter and Polaroid Colorpack II camera.

Fictional (so far): reverse microwave.

[mix]

50. I am fond of both...

typing up something is so different from "word processing," I remember writing papers on typewriters and making sure I had enough white out and corrector tape for the inevitable mistakes, what pressure! I also remember professors in college who were freaked out by the computer and word processing...I can't remember their arguments, but it had something to do with "the death of the word."

A reverse microwave? Would this contraption quickly freeze food or quickly turn cooked food into raw?

[Heidi]

52. There are more friends-of-typewriters at DU than I would have imagine.

My personal opinion is that the more deliberately I write--whether s with a manual typewriter, a fountain pen or a dip pen--the better my writing. :)

A reverse microwave would allow one to very quickly freeze or cool food. What I have in mind is getting a glass bottle of Coke cold really fast on a hot summer day. :hi:

[mix]

53. that would be cool...i've seen something similar

in wine shops...it's this device that quickly chills the bottle, maybe you've seen them...they're these big barrels with swirling cold water, very cumbersome.

In college I never owned a typewriter, I used the ones in the library...those little rooms...no internet to distract you. I loved them...the feeling of finishing a paper mistake free was a rush.

[Richardo]

56. Reverse microwave!

Reminds me of Woody Allen's inventor in 'Midsummer Nights Sex Comedy":

Leopold: So, you're an inventor, hey?
Andrew: Crackpot inventor.
Adrian: Andrew's invented a wedding present for you and Ariel. Tell 'em about that.
Andrew: It's a silly apparatus that takes the bones out of fish, and if you prefer, although there's no point to it, it puts bones in fish.

:D

[mix]

57. I loved that movie and that character in particular.

:thumbsup:

[Heidi]

58. "...and if you prefer, though there's no point in it..."

Story of my life, my friend. Story of my life. :rofl:

Mornin'! :hug:

[jmowreader]

60. Would a reverse microwave cool things down really quickly?

If so, they're not fictional--they're called blast chillers. Lots of restaurants and food factories have them for food safety--they can cool things from 158F to 37F in less than 90 minutes. They're REAL expensive, though.

[Heidi]

61. YES!!!!

I would prefer a countertop version, something maybe the size of my small Nespresso machine: tall enough to cool a small glass bottle of Coke, large enough to instantly freeze a kilo of meat.

Thank you for the heads-up, jmoreader. :hug: For some reason, it's comforting to me know someone has actually engineered an idea I've had since I was about 12 years old. :hi:

[Kali]

88. I hope you meant 90 seconds

or really large quantities, cause I have a hella chest freezer that will freeze a 5 to 10 lb chunk of meat faster than that. Sucker is set too cold, but I like it. takes ALL day to thaw a couple lbs of hamburger.

[jmowreader]

96. I'm serious. 90 minutes.

The attraction of the blast chiller:

There is a Danger Zone with food--it's between 40F and 140F. If you keep food in that temperature range for more than four hours, it will grow bacteria and be unsafe for use.

They want you to heat food to 167F and hold it there for two minutes to kill all the bacteria in it before you drop it to 147F, which is a safe holding temperature.

The Blast Chiller will take food from the 167F point to below the 40F point in 90 minutes.

Your hella chest freezer may cool fast, but it doesn't cool something straight off the stove that fast, which is what these are for. I am going to assume, although they don't sell blast chillers for this, if you took a slab of meat out of the fridge and stuck it in one it would turn hard enough to drive nails with in 20 minutes or less.

[Kali]

97. OK now I'm curious

I have to go do somethign, but maybe when I get back I will try experimenting. I will boil some water - say a gallon? and put it directly in the freezer. Then time it for freezing - I can put a thermometer in there too.

I know it will freeze a half-gallon of tap water hard as hell over night, because I make solid ice for the camp coolers that way, but I haven't ever really watched to see WHEN it froze just knew I could easily do two pans a day and get stocked up on ice with regular fills morning and night.

[AllenVanAllen]

45. H.G. Wells' Martian Fighting Machines

From The War of the Worlds

[mix]

54. yes

fluid and organic, that is death from on high, beautiful and terrifying

[Lucian]

46. Optimus Prime.

[Rabrrrrrr]

47. The Death Star

[Heidi]

63. You're just lookin' for a convenient (and, no doubt, tasteful and well designed) way to

deal with unruly children.

[Doc_Technical]

55. The Oscillation Overthruster

as used by Buckaroo Banzai.

http://everything2.com/title/oscillation+overthruster

[jmowreader]

62. The Strowger Switch

The Strowger switch made the automatic telephone exchange possible.

Almon Strowger, veteran of the 8th New York Cavalry, was an undertaker in Kansas City in the 1880s. When the telephone was first introduced to Kansas City, he ordered one, positive it would increase his business. Unfortunately, one of his competitors' wives was a telephone operator and sent all Strowger's calls to her husband. Strowger invented a machine to replace her. His invention helped to make telephone calls affordable. Before the automatic exchange, a telephone operator had to connect every call, monitor it, and disconnect it when the call had ended. (Another fun fone fact: The technology that allows more than one call to happen on the same line is Multiplexing. Before they introduced it, towns ran out of phone lines with heavy use...if you've seen Bye Bye Birdie, you may remember the song Telephone Hour. It talks about the days when you couldn't make a phone call from 7pm to 8pm because the teenagers had commandeered all the phone lines in town. Today that can't happen. You've probably never heard the PTB telling you to limit your phone calls during emergencies so vital calls could go through, but they used to have to do that. Thanks to multiplexing, they don't anymore.)

[Mopar151]

101. I knew an old Indian

As in Native American - who was a wizard at these things, and all old phone tech. He gave me a cup of the "herb tea" he drank at work once. I did'nt know what planet I was on for 2 hours.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

64. I don't believe I'm the first to mention food synthesizers.

[dysfunctional press]

73. a couple of us have already mentioned replicators- the star trek equivilant...

but it could replicate more than just food.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

87. Ah. Search FAIL on my part. Sorry. -nt

[Throd]

65. 1967 Oldsmobile 442 W-30

[mix]

66. Something like this?

[mix]

67. favorite car machine

[Mopar151]

102. You have taste. Strange taste, but taste nonetheless n/t

[TrogL]

68. the bicycle

[TheMightyFavog]

69. Mad Cat/Timber Wolf

Especially the variant armed with twin Clan ER PPCs in lieu of lasers. Bit of a heat pig, but will royally fuck over lighter 'Mechs with one shot if not destroy them outright.

EDIT: Hopefully, I'll have purchased a nice gaming machine (and a good joystick) by the time the new 'Mechwarrior game comes out. I still get chills from watching the promo vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orhOvbfyyJw

[Z_I_Peevey]

70. The wind-up wristwatch.

[kayakjohnny]

71. Well this thing's pretty cool. Never really caught on. Which could be a good thing.

The White Dwarf. A personal pedal-powered blimp.

[mix]

90. I would love one of those, a nice way to spend a summer morning. nt

[Jersey Devil]

72. Hands down it's the Orgasmatron

[MadBadger]

75. Number Six

Giggity

[Xipe Totec]

76. Mine

[Starbucks Anarchist]

77. HAL9000.

[YankeyMCC]

78. Obie

From The Well World Sega by Jack L. Chalker...a supercomputer, built into a moon, that could control all matter and all worlds.

[canoeist52]

79. Mouse Trap!

or

[hyphenate]

80. That would be the George Pal

version of the time machine: both aesthetically pleasing and useful, too!

[asjr]

83. Electric coffee bean grinder

[mix]

85. great little device nt

[Orrex]

89. Really, I can't believe that no one has suggested this yet

[tandot]

91. My red Cuisinart Grind and Brew coffee maker:

[mix]

92. all coffeemakers should be red...

so what does yours do? it sounds like you start with the bean...

[tandot]

93. I just add whole coffee beans in the evening and it is programmed

to grind and then brew in the morning. I have freshly ground and brewed coffee every morning. And, you don't need an alarm clock: The grinder is quite noisy :)

[mix]

94. i like that, thanks

:hi:

[DFW]

99. I was always partial to Mr. Peabody's WAYBACK MACHINE

It seemed somewhat tamer than the one in "Time Cop."

[Blue_In_AK]

100. Do my cameras count?

I LOVE my cameras.

[PBS Poll-435]

103. The Electric Grandmother

Milk out of one finger, OJ out of another.

[Mopar151]

104. Prototrak CNC milling machine

[BlueIris]

105. The precog machine from "Minority Report."

Bitchin'.

[old mark]

106. The Gibson Les Paul guitar. I have owned 3, currently own a

Les Paul Special that I want to take with me when I die.
They are great machines, and I have spent much of my life enjoying them, hope to spend much of the remainder playing them.

mark

[velvet]

107. sewing machine!

A truly great power tool.

[superduperfarleft]

108. Theo Jansen's kinetic sculptures.

They are sculptures that move on their own when there's a gust of wind. This one, the rhinoceros, is my favorite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2KkGFuRLew

""The Animaris Rhinoceros Transport is a type of animal with a steel skeleton and a polyester skin. It looks as if there is a thick layer of sand coating the animal. It weighes 2 tons and it stands 4.70 meters tall. Because of its height it catches enough wind to start moving."

[Deep13]

109. the debiggulator nt

[bikebloke]

110. Time machine

[TheManInTheMac]

111. Maxwell's Demon.

Betcha didn't see that coming.