Sooner or later, the lady with the scythe will visit us all. Many people repeat ad nauseam that "life is short," and that has led us to closely study our perception of time (including why it feels so strange), but there are some out there who want a bit more precision about how much time they have left in this world. That's where ShortLife comes in, a clock that, by taking values like date of birth, region, and life expectancy, presents an educated estimate of the time you've lived and what still remains.
The Price of Life, 1987. That film (available on YouTube) presents a very particular world in which every newborn receives a "temporal account," and its balance is nothing less than the time of life. In 2011, In Time appeared, with Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, which many saw as an undeclared remake of The Price of Life. Death, time, the relationship between the two, and their supposed value dominate both projects, but there is something even more disturbing: the precision of knowing how much life each one has left.
It's not a new concept. The Cyclopes supposedly gave up one of their eyes to see the future, and all they saw in the end was the day of their deaths. What about us? We can't see the future... but we can make calculations. Physical condition, mortality rate, history of previous illnesses, advantages and disadvantages of a region, life expectancy, there's a lot to consider. Now imagine a device on your desk that tries to present that result. Welcome to ShortLife.
ShortLife: How Much Time Do You Have Left?
ShortLife is a creation of Belgian conceptual artist Dries Depoorter. Its operation is limited to reporting the percentage of life time we have completed. The calculation is based on the average life expectancy that the World Health Organization reports for our country, so there is an inevitable margin of error, but the clock is always programmed for a single person. The only thing the user must manually enter is the current date and time.
On the technical side, ShortLife is composed of an ATmega328 microcontroller, accompanied by a MAX7219, and a four-digit seven-segment LED. There is no battery support, so it must remain connected to a power source via micro USB (either the included adapter, a power bank, or something similar). The modules are hand-soldered by Depoorter himself, and its main decorative element is a block of recycled plastic on the back that gives it a marble-like appearance. Although the clock aims to report how much we have lived (and by extension, calculate the rest), its warranty is only six months.
The potential for reproduction and hacking of the ShortLife is enormous, and we definitely recommend the DIY route if you want to create something similar, unless you're more interested in the artistic profile of the clock... which costs 165 euros. Would you put something like that on your desk? Leave a comment, existential crises pass faster when shared... (?)
Official site: Click here
https://old.neoteo.com/paso-del-tiempo-se-percibe-mas-rapido-medida-envejecemos/
