There was a Stuff You Should Know podcast about this just recently [0]. An impressive amount of engineering has gone into something that seems much more artistic than scientific.
1: https://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/whats-the-10000-...
1: https://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/whats-the-10000-...
http://podcast.longnow.org/salt/salt-020040910-hillis-podcas...