The Post-Twitter Communication System

Or maybe not. By way of ScienceBlogling Ed Yong, I came across tweenbots, which are little robots that can only travel in one direction, and...well, just watch the video:

So I wanted to see what else tweenbot inventor Kacie Kinzer came up with. While I like the Morgen, it is the Whisper Jar that strikes me as particularly neato:

Whisper jars are magical containers for secrets. Whisper something into the jar, close the lid, and your secret will be contained until someone else comes along and opens the jar. When they do, the secret escapes-- is repeated once for one person to hear-- and then is gone forever. The secret recipient can then leave a secret of his or her own in the (now) empty jar.

Whisper jars were created out of an interest in using metaphor-rich objects to facilitate communication and narrative. We liked the idea of using a tangible thing, a jar, to essentially physicalize something which would otherwise be buried in the mind or heart-- a thought, a confession, a desire. The asynchronous nature of the exchange allows people to unburden themselves, to communicate something to another human being, without knowing who that person will be, or when the secret will be heard. The jar may accumulate dust, but until the lid comes off and transmits it's message to another the secret will be safely preserved.

Twitter is so passé....