what's this thing for?

Primate Screw and Bearing is a theoretical company, but it's also a concept. I'll let Aaron wax philosophical on it, mostly because I'm more interested in his description than mine. But briefly, what appeals to me is the idea of the tiny building blocks that make the world run - screws, bearings, etc. A screw is a simple machine (I love simple machines), an inclined plane wrapped around an axis. It does work for us. A bearing is a perfect sphere, to the extent that we can come close to perfection. Without these tiniest and simplest of parts most of our world would grind to a halt.

But by themselves they're not especially useful. To apply the concept of emergent properties, something amazing happens when you join these small parts together with other passive objects - something far beyond what the screw could do by itself, or what the slab of metal or wood could accomplish on its own. You get motion, utility, life, even beauty. Things happen.

I said I'd be brief, and it may be too late for that now, but this is the spirit with which I'd like to open this forum: it's a place to try out parts in combination with other parts - to test, combine, connect and play with ideas in combination with other ideas. We might build some strange machines, and it might be a whole lot of fun. Enjoy. :)