The other, nearly universal conviction is that this contraption must be a gimmick, some piece of plastic slickness that sounds cool but can't possibly work.
But what separates "Looper" from, say, "Timecop" or other rickety time-travel contraptions is that it explores exactly this kind of question to its full emotional consequences.
The only difference is that we'd have a contraption on our arms to allow us to click on the ads being shown every so often.
"As we were walking down the drive, there was this contraption that the house owners had dumped in the garden – it looked like a robot out of Star Wars," he explains.
In the nineteenth century, Kempelen's machine was improved on by Sir Charles Wheatstone, and that contraption, which was exhibited in London, was seen by the young Alexander Graham Bell.
"What's that strange contraption?" jokes one of the regulars near the front.
The alternative version, which says it's an anagram of the answer given by Freya, goddess of love, when Thor asked her: "What's that strange contraption you've got on your chest?" is now discounted by scholars.
One day I came out of the house and that contraption had been moved from behind Bill's garage to the front of ours.
But now, what is this contraption?
A rainbird is a contraption that simulates a storm.
