P561 The Chaos Machine in the Linucon hotel lobby

P561 Steve Jackson’s Chaos Machine is “a giant communal build-it-yourself project that’s a cross between an erector set, model trains, a pachinko machine, a jungle gym, and, well, a Chaos Machine. Help unpack the parts and build the initial framework people will add to all weekend.” Here it is being built in the Linuxon hotel lobby.

It has tracks for little balls to roll, and moving belts, like the yellow belt in the foreground, that hoist them up. There are probably other kinds of moving parts that I don’t remember.

Linucon 2004, Austin, Texas, October 2004