Ingo Althoefer

Hello, last night I found out that I was not the first person to put Lego bricks in a washing machine and to observe consciously the creation of random complexes. In January 2013, Richard Bartle has described his experiences in a blog http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2013/QBlog190113A.html including some nice photos. In the gamer scene, Richard Bartle is a wellknown historical person. Back in 1979/1980, Roy Trubshaw and he togehter programmed the first realtime MUD game. (MUD means Multi User Dungeon.) Ingo (has learned also yesternight, that washing at 60 degree Celsius transforms some old Lego bricks in a way not seen in Lego prospects)

Thanks for the feedback. It seems, I was mainly misled by the site http://www.depts.ttu.edu/tstem/curriculum/robotics/docs/design_challenge_1.pdf without watching at the other hits in detail. Ingo.

Hello, during a websearch I stumbled across the term "non-lego activities". Examples: (i) This will be our first non lego activity. The kids will learn... (ii) This section will be a non-LEGO activity to reinforce the Students ... What do people mean by this? Ingo(dt).

Okay. I allow your son to eat Nutella while playing with Lego ;-) Ingo(dt).

Hi Hey Joe, thanks for the feedback, "Much" yes, but not "too much"... Funny twist. Just yesterday I presented a MOC on the Venus Flytrap, in relation to "marksmen's festival" ("Schuetzenfest" in German). Please, make some photos of the complexes and share them with me/us. Yes, fun and progress are happy sisters. Ingo(dt).

Hello, now the old Lego bricks and the washing machine have got their own website - with new photos. http://www.althofer.de/old-lego-in-washing-machine.html Ingo(dt).

Hello, after one more night of sleeping I realized that in my setup the washing machine is a sort of Monte Carlo artist. My task after the design process is to simply identify "interesting" complexes, give them appropriate names, and make photos. Here are two examples. Elementary Mondrian style aircraft carrier Ingo(dt).

I use(d) Ebay successfully. Once you have become regular and good customer of some power seller, you may ask him or her to put some very special items back for you until it is enough to justify shipping. Ingo(dt).

Hello again, Yesterday and today I made some tests in our washing machine. I explain with help of photos from http://www.althofer.de/miller-experiment-with-lego.html In a first run I took all the (old) bricks from the Ariel barrel (shown on the middle of the site). At 40 degree Celsius for about 70 minutes in the washing machine lots of complexes built. In most of them, plates (of size 2x8, 4x8, 6x8) were involved. Several complexes contained five or six pieces. Then I took all the (new) yellow and red pieces (48 of size 2x2, 38 of size 4x2) from the next session on the website and gave them 70 minutes at 40° C in the washing machine. Not a single complex arose! Then I took a subset from the Ariel barrel, with about 22 bricks of size 2x2 and 45 bricks of size 4x2. Eight complexes evolved: five of them have 4x2 above 4x2, the other three contain one 4x2 and one 2x2 each. CONCLUSIONS: * My old Lego bricks lead to more complexes than my new bricks. * Plates (with their large reaction surfaces) lead to much more complexes. Side insight: Some of the 2x8- and 4x8-plates were damaged during the washing process. Ingo(dt).

My span without Lego was 30+ years. Born in 1961, I got my first Lego set (red and white bricks) in a rainy holliday in 1965. (My sister, one year younger got the "same" set with yellow and blue bricks.) Then a lot of activities for almost ten years. Highlight was my personal version of the Apollo moon rocket Saturn V around 1972. It was almost one meter high; in its third stage was hidden the Lunar Landing module (with many red roof bricks) You could draw it out and unfold the yellow landing legs. IIRC, I stopped in the winter 1974/75. Then came long periods with tournament chess, mathematics, experiments in human+computer chess (3-Hirn), game design. In 2005 or 2006 I bought ten big boxes with Lego bricks in the hope to use them as pieces for game prototypes - but that happened only a very few times. Then I returned "fully" to Lego early in 2011, when my mother asked what to do with the boxes and barrels with Lego bricks in the attic: "If you do not have plans I will send it to Nirvana." So it started again: http://www.3-hirn-verlag.de/lego-rails/good-old-lego-rails.html Ingo(dt).

Hi Erik, When reading your comment again, I got another idea: Maybe, Miller experiments can be used to estimate the age of Lego heaps. The more complexes, the older. Of course, different people stirr differently... By the way: Are there establised procedures to estimate the age of Lego bricks? Ingo.

Hello Erik, It came to me by chance: I wanted to speed up the drying process of wet Lego bricks and found "first" complexes in the towel. No and yes. "No" In most experiments shown on the website I used new Lego bricks: * the first one with 1x2 and 1x4 bricks * the series with the "fat" yellow and red bricks (* also the green and black bricks for the decay experiment) "Yes" Very old bricks (from the late 1960's and early 1970's) in the Ariel barrel. You have to supply energy by stirring or shaking. (Miller also did this with lightnings.) Time is not everything. And likely, stirring by humans helps much more than shaking automatically. Ingo. PS: Soon I will try if freshly washed (old) Lego bricks behave differently.

Hello Vincent, I just added photos and text on a series of runs with a barrel full with mixed old Lego bricks. It is in the middle of the site. It will be interesting to see if there are some brick types which act like catalysts: Not going into the complexes, but supporting the creation of complexes. Thanks, I corrected this. Ingo. ********************************************************************* Hello Hrw-Amen, The preliminary explanation is in the middle of the site: The discovery of the phenomenon happened by chance. My hope: Maybe teachers in biology and chemistry like to use the Lego-setup for motivating Miller's experiment . And finally: The topic is not finished, yet. Maybe others have ideas how to make more out of it, or maybe I myself. Ingo.

Hello, I would like to look at the other end, namely "criticality from below". There are at least three possible approaches with Lego. (i) I want to build X. Which pieces do I need for it? (ii) I want to build X. How can I achieve it with my pieces? (iii) I have set Y of pieces. What can I build with them? Concerning (iii) one might ask: How many Lego pieces are enough to build something interesting? Last winter we had 27 random pieces. "We" were a group of about 20 adults in a restaurant during a long dinner, 5 or 6 of us actively involved in the Lego pieces, the others "only" watching, eating, and drinking. Here are some of the results: http://www.3-hirn-ve...lego-minis.html My impression: These 27 pieces were definitely enough. My conjecture: There might be some product inequality. When you are a single person you need somewhat more pieces. When you are a group, joint creativity may help to press out something from a smaller set. Ingo.

Hello, I am not sure if that is the best idea. I remember a case from Germany (where I live) a few years ago. A man (around 65 years old) had built very nice stories with figures from Playmobil. He asked Playmobil if it was fine with them when he made an exhibition with this stuff. Playmobil said "no". Nevertheless, the man made an exhibition (somewhat idiotic, in my opinion). Playmobil learned about it and brought him to court. I do not remember what the judge ruled, but the man complained bitterly in his local newspaper. So, this is an experience not with Lego, but with another toy producer. Ingo.

Hello, I have executed Miller-Urey experiments with Lego bricks. Find a report here: http://www.althofer....-with-lego.html Text is both in English and German. Ingo.