#wand

[ARTEFACT #3 - THE WHISPER BOX SYSTEM] Future Archaeology Department, BDI - JOURNAL AUG 19 (Wednesday) - Berkeley, CA

"We generally believe the WHISPER BOX was a information storage / retrieval computer system, untraceable and robust against threats in the WHISPER CRAFT timeline (‡). While we have not yet recovered the printer components themselves, we estimate based on the few bits of descriptions we found, the BOX would take about 60 seconds to print a complete book it's native SCROLL format, making truly a print-on-demand pocket library. The WAND was what connected the BOX to this physical world: Photographed here is how a user would select from the WHISPER TROVE - millions of books, articles, games, and interactive applications distributed in a ROM format (still not recovered).

‡ The TIMELINE THEORY is pure conjecture, but all we have at the moment."

#fiction #microfiction #retrotech #concept #photography #leaves #pumpkin #wand #books #degrowth #design #sustainability #hacking #technology #tech #hci #future #workinprogress #hardware #berkeley #california

[ARTEFACT #17 - THE WAND of WHISPER CRAFT] Future Archaeology Department, BDI - JOURNAL AUG 18 (TUESDAY) - Berkeley, CA

"In the world of WHISPER CRAFT, books were crammed with software that ran with a WAND tap. BOXES could print scrolls and books in seconds. Photographed here is the WAND, the primary UI device.

In our findings we generally believe WHISPER CRAFT was designed to make a computer system as robust as possible to protect against threats in the WHISPER CRAFT timeline (‡). We have found several motivations: A) hide from state and/or corporate surveillance, B) zero energy usage (what we are calling "off-state computing"), and C) a bulwark to preserve knowledge against some sort of explosion of pseudoscience and/or sudden collapse of institutions. This last one seemed the most far-fetched to me at first, personally, but with the discoveries we are making now, I am beginning to think this last motivation might best explain our WHISPER CRAFT findings...

‡ The TIMELINE THEORY is pure conjecture, but all we have at the moment."

#fiction #microfiction #retrotech #concept #photography #leaves #pumpkin #wand #books #degrowth #design #sustainability #hacking #technology #tech #hci #future #workinprogress #hardware #berkeley #california

Future Archaeology Department, BDI - JOURNAL AUG 10 (MONDAY) - BERKELEY, CA

"The last ten days have been a whirlwind of discoveries, starting with the discovery of the WAND -- wood with a a simple scanner component, pictured here -- as well as scraps of a PAPER-BASED UI from a storage device called a "LARGE ROM", which the WHISPER BOX apparently used to store a massive library - none have been recovered, but we think millions of books, poems, and so-called "SCRAPBOOK ADVENTURE GAMES"!

We now ask: Why did they design their computers to be off-line and screen-free? Did they simply have no Internet or screen technology, or were they choosing not to use it? Was it simply for the peace and quiet, or was this a sort of last-ditch technology to save this vast library of books? If so... From whom?"

#fiction #microfiction #retrotech #concept #photography #leaves #wand #degrowth #design #sustainability #hacking #technology #tech #hci #future #workinprogress #hardware