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Which bit of it was unthinkable? A vacuum, servos, microswitches and control software are 1980s technology.

The depth sensing camera, but he didn't use that; the 3D printing components were a convenience but not necessary as he said himself; the 3D modelling program to define the locations on his head and angles to cut could have been done with older software. Was there anything which couldn't have been done by a sufficiently motivated person with tens of thousands of dollars of workshop (like he has) in 2010, 2000 or 1990?