Have you heard the buzz on virtual money in online games? Some years ago the first virtual millionaire was announced, yet there have also been reports on people being practically enslaved to farm virtual gold. The Chinese government recently announced to limit the use of ‘virtual’ currencies. An essay on the virtuality of money.
By KOERT VAN MENSVOORT
First of all we should realize the term virtual money is a pleonasm, a superfluous expression. Money is, by definition, virtual. And it always has been. Well, perhaps not in the time when people used cows and goats as barter. A cow is a living creature, and useful as well. You can drink its milk and when the creature no longer gives any milk you can always kill it and eat it. We may not think about, but it is actually a miracle that I can now at the butcher on the corner exchange a piece of paper for a rump steak.
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Buttons are everywhere: throughout your day you press them on phones, alarm clocks, keyboards, elevators, dishwashers and of course on the computer screen. Although buttons did not exist in old nature – taken that nipples do not count as buttons – the little symbols of control have been ubiquitous throughout most of our lives. But for how long?
As technology advances, buttons are replaced by sensors, gesture technology and autonomous systems. In fact, it may well be that our grand-grand-children won’t be pushing buttons like we do, as for them the entire environment has become an interface (again).
Although buttons may one day be grand-grand-parents technology, the current generation of people is still so used to pushing buttons, they are increasingly applied as skeuomorphs, meaning that they have no effect or function and are merely providing the user with a decorative feedback. Such buttons are called placebo buttons.
Examples of placebo buttons are unwired walk buttons at pedestrian crossings in New York City and door-close buttons in elevators, which functioning has been replaced by sensors. In some cases the button may have been functional, but may have failed or been disabled during installation or maintenance. Sometimes the button have been deliberately designed to do nothing besides establishing a illusion of control in the mind of the user.
Now one wonders about that big red button in the White House… could that one be a placebo too? Well allright, better not to try if that one just now.
Related: The buttons, Switch Critters – can you make them switch?, The powerbutton button, Magical interaction, Simulating old nature on next nature, Your grand-grand-parents new media, A society of simulations. Thanks Selby.
This picture was taken in Zambia by Sarah Los (NL) while on wildlife safari. Every fairly trained “NextNature spotter” should be able to distinguish the cellphone-tree masts from old-nature trees. But that’s odd; there are three of them in a row and all different species!? Does every cellular network provider plant its own tree family? It surely looks like a competition. Future designs are expected to look better, taller and greener.
Let us do a quick jungle safari ourselves. Read the rest of this entry »
Robots are penetrating our homes… disguised as cats? On July 30, Sega Toys releases an el-cheapo simulation cat toy for robot cat lovers with allergies or pet-unfriendly apartments. It’s made to look, feel, and act just like a Norwegian Forest Cat. It runs on four AAs and will retail for about $100.
We are unsure whether the kitten can talk, what its fur is really made of – rabbits perhaps? – and if there is also a version available with a vacuum cleaner integrated. Nonetheless, it is another schoolbook example of nextnature disguising itself as oldnature in order to gain acceptance.
Via Tokyomango. See also: Steam Horse, Designer Pets, Epidermits – the tissue engineered toy, Lifestyle Pets, Is your cat infected with a computer virus?, Robot costumes, Babybunny – stuffed pets as toys. Thanks Tinkebell.
We are anxiously waiting for the robot that makes the sushi, but at Squse, they have created the hand that can carefully place the delicacies in a box without crushing them. Could this invention mean the end of the factory worker? Of course not. They can all be retrained to manufacture robotic arms… Read the rest of this entry »
I deem you have to be over sixty to have an object with so many historical layers of media in your house. Let’s analyze.
We are looking at a chandelier in which the candle standards have been replaced with much safer and more convenient electric sockets. How modern! Welcome in the 20th century. Fake wax drippings were added as a reference to the nostalgic, yet outdated, candlelight technology.
There used to be special flaring light bulbs on the market to reach the full candlelight mimicking effect, but unfortunately we have now learned these lightsbulbs are big energy wasters. How terribly unsustainable! Hence, the owners have replaced them with energy saving lights.
On a personal note: This I energy saving chandelier was photographed the house of my parents. Perhaps this explains some of my nextnature thinking.
See also: Your grand-grand parents new media, Steam Horse.
This remarkable proposal for a steam powered street locomotive was invented by Mathewson in 1876. According to the inventor the goal was to make a machine resembling a horse in form, so as not to frighten the horses on the streets. I may be wrong, but I think it would be a pretty dim horse that would be fooled by this biomimicmarketing avant la lettre. Perhaps another purpose was to make the steam powered carriage more acceptable to people.
Surely, this steam horse illustrates the notion that new media (steam powered carriages in this case) often try to mimic an older medium in order to become accepted more easily. Yet over time, the older medium is superseded and transformed into a cultural relic (horse powered carriages in this case). Other examples of this principle are the electric candle light, electronic mail, and the record collection on your mp3-player.
Related: Your grand-grand-parents new media, Who wants to drive a fish?, Sexy Car, This way for survival.
Now this is how you do it. First you take the meat of a hundred animals; chickens (19%), turkeys (17%). Secondly, you blend them in a large tank with water, mais, wheat, oil, fat, chickencollagen, salt, soya, aroma, modified cornstarches, milk-parts, lemonjuice, maltodextrine, dispersant (E450, E451, E452), rising means: E500, taste amplifier: E621, anti-oxidant: E341.
Next you sculpt your mix into a shape which remotely resembles a chickens leg– like the ones folks know from the comics! Finally, you place your meat-water–corn–mix on a bone shaped peace of wood. Cover it with pan flourpan flour for the crispy bite. Tasty!
The Chicken-knots are Dutch design. See also: Some kids don’t like Chicken, Fishbowl - Ready made meal, Banksy pet store.
iDail replaces the iPhone keypad with a good old rotary keyboard. For all you nostalgics (and grandparents) out there.
See also: Who wants a Stylus?, 8-bit icon watch, Treetrunk trashcan.
In the category: Creativity with modernistic tree trunks. Created by the good people of Draw me a sheep, who with this project aim to explore today’s human relationship with nature and our desire for authenticity through mysterious composition of the known: a tree and a chair..
See also: Treetrunk bench, How to grow a Chair.
