CIMG0876ChaosMach002_0001_1 People playing with the Chaos Machine at Linucon 2005

The congoers could amuse themselves with it in two ways. First, they could assemble it from a million of small parts like a giant 3D puzzle. Then, once it had been built, anyone could reconfigure it any way they liked, by moving some belts (like the yellow belt in the foreground), tracks and pieces from one place to another, and play with it throughout the convention. You played with it by rolling the balls down the tracks.

The machine also has a little basket attached to it, as one can see in this picture; you might want to roll the balls in such a way that they would fall into the basket, and reconfigure the tracks to that purpose. But you could invent your own goals and move the parts around accordingly. I guess that’s what makes it a Chaos machine.

Here is a video of people playing with the Chaos Machine.

Linucon 2005 was a Linux and science fiction convention that took place in Austin, Texas, from September 30 to October 2, 2005.