Jörg's automation of the machine is truly fun :) The mechanics of the machine are really clunky and giving it an external clock made it function so much more smoothly iirc.
Computers are mainstream but the concepts behind computing are still "magic" to most. We automatically assume that it can only be realized in the current complicated form (microchips/architecture layers etc.) and forget that the concept is just a "machine" which you can build in many different forms.
Leonardo da Vinci himself had a design for a mechanical calculator - https://www.educalc.net/page/197481/ and http://www.computer-timeline.com/timeline/leonardo-da-vinci/