'Mechanical Tumor' Meatspace Expression Of Computer Stress
The mechanical tumor is an art project created by Mio I-zawa. This fleshy, organic lump expands and contracts based on the CPU activity of the attached computer.
This is a much more expressive indicator of your computer's activity than those stupid graphs in the various resource widgets you can get for various operating systems.
(Mechanical tumor video)
The size of the pulsating "tumor" varies using motors and actuators; air compressors provide inflation.
This bizarre art project reminds me of the combinations of live tissue and mechanism found in Philip K. Dick's works. Consider the Ampek F-a2 Recording System.
Nat Flieger reflexively poured water into a cup and fed the living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system which he kept in his office; the Ganymedean life form did not experience pain and had not yet objected to being made over into a portion of an electronic system... neurologically it was primitive, but as an auditory receptor it was unexcelled.
AI Worms That Spread
'...there were so many worms and counterworms loose in the data-net now' - John Brunner, 1975.
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Nano-Chainmail 2D Mechanically Interlocked Polymer
'Nemourlon armor of reasonable weight resists penetration by most fragments and any bullet that is not both reasonably heavy and fairly high-velocity.'
Humans Love Helping Other Species
'At the ringside opposite them a table had been removed to make room for a large transparent plastic capsule on wheels.'