Perception

On the Ball

Visitors are challenged to to keep a steel ball suspended in a viscous fluid by turning a knob that controls a magnetic field. This is difficult to do. The position of the ball is the feedback for making adjustments. The problem is, this feedback comes too late to be useful. By the time the ball can be seen moving off-center, it's too late to reverse it. Machines can often outperform us in tasks involving feedback, because they can detect changes earlier and respond to them faster.