Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. If you thought all of the world's most useless machines were found in the pages of SkyMall or on As Seen On TV infomercials, think again ...

There’s no project that dives into existential quandaries more than a useless machine, as they can truly illustrate the futility of existence by turning themselves off once they have been powered on.

In a time when we’re inundated with talk of an impending AI apocalypse it’s nice to see an AI that’s intentionally useless. That AI is HAL 9000. No, not the conflicted HAL from the movie 2001: A Space ...