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“Mind Flex” is a new toy being hawked by Mattel that allows you to control the pictured ball with the power of your mind.  Essentially, you place the headset over your cranium and then using the sheer force of your massive brain, you direct the ball through various obstacles.  Check out the article for a demonstration video.

I thought two things immediately when I saw this:

1) The future is here.  Okay, baby step to the future, but still pretty neat-o.

2) This is the most pointless thing I have ever seen.

As far as design principles go, this ranks right up with catching a ball in a cup and bouncing a ball off a paddle.  Granted, this is a toy probably meant to be sold to the screaming 8-year old masses, and thus probably wasn’t designed to be all that  deep.  But that doesn’t change the fact that in the end it doesn’t mean anything.  It’s a reminder that technology without proper design is a glittering lure.  Design gives technology a purpose.

Then I thought, “this device reminds me so much of how I feel when I play games these days: hollow”.  When will we no longer be content with jumping through digital hoops?