Rube Goldberg (1883-1970), the Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, inventor, author, and sculptor has been on my mind lately. If you've ever seen his "INVENTIONS" comic, it's apparent that Rube Goldberg discovered difficult ways to achieve easy results. His cartoons were symbols of man's capacity for exerting maximum effort to accomplish minimal results. He believed that there were two ways to do things: the simple way and the hard way, and that a surprisingly number of people preferred doing things the hard way. Rube's drawings depict absurdly-connected machines functioning in extremely complex ways to produce a simple end result.

Here, take a look at his way for keeping someone from forgetting to mail their wife's letter.



Yes, that image is ruthlessly absurd.

Now why has the late Mr. Goldberg been on my mind? That little piece of nostalgic fun coupled with rediscovering a fun little game from the past. The highly addictive "The Incredible Machine" or the latest version known as "The Even MORE Incredible Machine," has fallen into my possession. At least Sierra's naming scheme for game sequels and updates isn't as silly as Capcom. Had Capcom gotten their hands on this game series I'm sure I'd be playing "The Even More Incredible Machine EX+ ALPHA Turbo Hyper-Fighting."

To play the game you are given the following:

1. A 2d environment
2. A specific task must be performed within this environment.
3. A different assortment of contraptions to be used to perform the task.

The aforementioned tools can include everything from conveyer belts, laser lights, rockets, and even the occasional cat. The contraptions need to be arranged to form an elaborate Rube Goldberg Machine. This machine if constructed properly will perform the given task, thus allowing you to advance to the next environment. Here's an example of a difficult task involving mice, pulleys, and cheese. The picture on the left is an untouched environment while the picture on the right is the solution.

**click on each picture for full sized version**


As seen in those pictures, the game can get quite complex. Now let me struggle with actually finding a point to all of you've read so far. I'm fascinated with this game as well as the concept of the Rube Goldberg style machine. In life people are given an environment and tasks to perform within that environment. People may also have certain contraptions or tools to aid them with their tasks. These contraptions can be anything from knowledge, experience, physical prowess, or wealth.

The perfect person could look at the environment, make an assessment of his/her tools, and understand how they both come together to perform the task. Unfortunately not too many of us out there are perfect. Rarely do we have the patience to solve complex problems especially if these problems are not fully understood.

This game causes me to realize how much I can't accept failure. Knowing that a solution to the problem the game provides causes you to constantly try new ways to solve the problem. The problem can be solved. The pieces just need to put together in the correct order and place. Through trial and error it is possible to understand why a particular configuration of contraptions has failed.

You were never meant to launch that rocket into the wall causing a basketball to fall off the wall and into a bucket attached to a cage that is hiding cheese from our mouse friend. The cage can only be opened with a rope. We can attach a bucket to the cage via a rope, but there's no place for the bucket to fall and create enough energy to pull the rope that will lift open the cage. Therefore the cage cannot be opened. Facing this situation, I would say, "That’s ridiculous!" Even though I failed to open that cage with my original method, I would review my given contraptions and analyze the given environment yet again. I'm not one to accept failure. If I am to accept failure, then I better figure out how I failed in the first place. Merely accepting failure as what was supposed to happen is not an option.

"A HA," I say to myself. That basketball could fall on top of a hamster cage that is attached to a power generator with a belt. When the ball hits the hamster cage, the hamster starts to run in his wheel. The spinning wheel will turn the gears of the power generator that the wheel is connected to by a belt. This will create power for a laser which will ignite the hot air balloon that is attached to the cage hiding the cheese for our mouse friend via a rope. When the rope is pulled upward by the balloon, the cage is lifted and our mouse will victoriously feast on a slice of cheese. The cage can be opened. The problem just requires a different method with a different combination of contraptions. Unfortunately in life, the option for unlimited tries is not available.