Speculative Culture

And as synchronicity… or me being slightly late to the party would have it, Bruce Stirling (A creature with whom I hold no small degree of respect) has started a new project, entitled “Imaginary Gadgets project”… which is to do with Gadgets which are Imaginary. Or sort of semi-imaginary, exhibit A being the Antikythera

a 2000 year old mystery computer object of Greek Origin… and someone actually manage to make a working one recently, which is no mean feat:

And it looks as though there are plans here, so if any ponoko gurus want to have a crack at it, here it is:

though I suspect there may be better versions than that out there somewhere. Who knows, maybe the guy who recreated it would be interested as well.

In my own defence etc… this machine is a working gadget – and maybe Bruce and I aren’t on entirely different pages here, because he does say “Mere “weirdness” is parochial. The “impossible” is trivial”… and ironically, the site that first alerted me to his new project, was also the site that alerted me to how irritating I find aesthetics trumping function… although I won’t say which entries here caught my eye in this regard… it was the one that was most popular, but it’s been knocked from its perch.

I think maybe one of the things I found irritating was all the gushing flickr-esque comments the general gist of which seemed to be “ooh, where can I buy one”. I think I find that passivity irritating… and as Bruce said in his third introductory sentence for his new project…

“If you don’t care to actively contribute to the Imaginary Gadgets project, you can stop reading right here.”

Ha ha. I love you Bruce. Excellent.