MIU404 Episode 3

Personalised Robe Goldenberg machine for "Life" (MIU 404 Ep 3)

I really liked this episode ... I loved the banter between Shima and Ibuki ... Ibuki telling the boss he loved her LOL ... Ibuki is so left of field :-) I also very much liked how they incorporated the principles of the Robe Goldberg machine into the story ... it was nicely done.

That 'chain reaction machine' was called Robe Goldberg after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg's cartoon drawings of gadgets that performed what otherwise would be simple tasks, in highly convoluted and often impractical and complicated ways. Like the setup Shima arranged to get the ball bearing into Ibuki's hand. He could have just given it to him ... but no ... he set up a course filled with obstacles that both lead and limited where and how the ball bearing got into Ibuki's hand ... all to demonstrate a fascinating aspect of life:

"The path we take is never straight. There are obstacles. You might dodge them, but you might get pushed into a different path. You may end up committing a crime. Setting off a switch could get you in the wrong path ... ultimately ... one must choose his own path ... but the number of obstacles is different for everybody. Some can get back to the right path, but some get deep into trouble. Who we meet. Who we don't meet. Which switch will change the path of the person? No one knows until the switch is set off."

I am not a proponent of free will or concept of being on the 'right' or 'wrong' path. I think life and what a person does in it, is a bit like that ball bearing ... we all start of 'somewhere' (of which we have no choice over) and then where we go from that point is determined / limited by what is around us at that time and place and our capacity at that time ... the ball bearing could only 'roll' where the environment was conducive to its rolling. If you replace the ball bearing with a cube ... the cube would not go anyway on that particular course, in that particular environment in its current 'state'.

What you bring to the 'table' of life at any given time, where you are / where you are not, who you meet / who you don't meet ... these are all part of your own personal "Robe Goldberg machine" of life. Robe Goldenberg machine ... a really fascinating application to life that was nicely told in this episode ... it was heartening on one hand and sad on the other ...

Read More