Ever wondered what gadgets you could use to get rid of laziness? Well, there seem to be quite a few options, but the bad news is that most of them solve the problem by delivering electroshocks.
London-based designer Ling Tan envisioned a world where such words as procrastination and laziness don’t exist in anyone’s vocabulary. Of course, the world envisioned by her is also full of masochists who prefer getting electroshocks whenever they wander off the path. As proof stand the gadgets that she designed.
Ling Tan’s approach is not as superficial as it may seem. She actually points out that all those cables attached to wearable devices strapped to one’s body might deplete us of our humanity: “I wanted to highlight the potential invasiveness of wearable technology and its long-term effect on the user.”
The designer also detailed the way her weird contraptions are meant to cure laziness in a scary, yet noninvasive manner: “You can never fully control your brain activity, in this case, your attention level. You can definitely focus your attention on something or an object for a few seconds or minutes, but the moment you start thinking about other stuff in your mind, your attention level will vary or fluctuate.”
To maintain people’s focus, these scary devices employ more than just the visual sense, as Tan explains: “Right now, most of the consumer devices capitalize only on the user’s visual ability to understand information as compared to other body senses. This project informs the immense potential and possibility of employing other body sense to effectively change a person’s behavior over time.”
Once the designer got started on inventing these creepy gadgets, she couldn’t be stopped. In fact, she put together not less than 12 such contraptions.
Most of them function in a similar way. Brainwaves are read using an EEG reading headset, and then interpreted. If they do not correspond to a state of focus, electroshocks are delivered through devices that are attached either to the neck or to the arms.
Obviously, the electroshocks are meant to be harmful. Their simple role is to remind people that they should get back on track. Also, if these electroshock productivity boosters ever get mass produced, it would probably be better if people with pacemakers avoided them.
If you liked this post, please check the Pavlov Poke, which boost productivity by giving Facebook users electroshocks, and the singNshock alarm clock that zaps heavy sleepers.
