The Ultimate Machine

"Nothing could be simpler. It is merely a small wooden casket, the size and shape of a cigar box, with a single switch on one face. When you throw the switch, there is an angry purposeful buzzing. The lid slowly rises, and from beneath it emerges a hand. The hand reaches down, turns the switch off and retreats into the box. With the finality of a closing coffin, the lid snaps shut, the buzzing ceases and peace reigns once more. The psychological effect, if you do not know what to expect, is devastating. There is something unspeakably sinister about a machine that does nothing - absolutely nothing - except switch itself off."

- Excerpt from 'Voice Across The Sea' by Arthur C Clarke, referring to the Invention made by Claude Elwood Shannon (1916~2001), who is famous for having founded the information theory, also credited with founding both digital computer and digital circuit design theory in 1937. Among many of his lifetime inventions, he also built the first machinery device that could solve the Rubik's Cube puzzle.