He was of the opinion that this approach could lead to better engineering solutions than an approach which was hindered by reliability in the research phase. I reject this position. I have attempted, in Petit Mal, to forge an alternative to this dualistic structure. Nor is it a simple task to build a machine which malfunctions reliably , which teeters on the threshold between functioning and non-functioning. This is as exacting an engineering task as building a machine whose efficiency is maximised.
Many scientific ideas become dangerous when extrapolated into the social realm.
One such is the idea of the universal machine. My machine is a particularly eccentric mechanism. They explicitly or implicitly treat the computer as a culturally 'neutral' object. But we all know that a computer or a robot are full of cultural meaning, they are emblems of the post-industrial world in both its utopian and distopian aspects. Projection and Representation People immediately ascribe vastly complex motivations and understandings to the Petit Mal.