Euphio Device

This is one of those posts that don’t really explain very well what’s going on.

The idea of the Euphio Device is taken from a Vonnegut short story, “The Euphio Question,” which is sort of a warning about the seduction of technology. I was VERY intrigued by the idea of this device and hoped someone would come out with one soon. It never happened, but the iPhone comes pretty darn close.

I thought the device should be more of a Zen machine (why not?), instant enlightenment, or at least a meditation device. I started out with the notion of lights, sound (both implemented) and biofeedback (GSR, heartbeat/rate, and so on…not implemented). I then upped the ante, thinking, oh, this needs an app, and AI, and, a community aspect, create a loop which constantly measures one’s degree of enlightenment (measurement, why not?) and refine the light and sound patterns against everyone else to improve and optimize. These things are out of my reach as a programmer, and ethics, ethics, ethics of course.

So it remains a work-in-progress.