The World's Most Useless Machine

The gadget marketplace is littered with useless contraptions that are gobbled up by unwitting, tech-starved consumers despite having an utter lack of practical applications. While it may seem like those ridiculous devices typically reside in the USB category, a designer by the handle of SaskView has created a stand-alone box that just may be the most useless machine ever built.

Drawing his inspiration from Claude Shannon's 'Ultimate Machine' of the '50s, SaskView built a wooden box which houses a disembodied hand. Once the machine is turned on, the lonely hermit hand performs only one menial switch-flipping task: immediately turning itself off again (video after the break). The incredibly creepy and reclusive action does resonate, though, because, in the words of Arthur C. Clarke, "there is something unspeakably sinister about a machine that does nothing -- absolutely nothing -- except turn itself off." Well, unless that nefarious machine actually steals your hard-earned money first.

 

via www.switched.com