One Step Closer to The Matrix: Generate Power for Minimum wage

It was bound to happen sooner or later. We have started making machines that pay humans to give them power. Now all we have to do is hook up Minecraft to this thing so they can escape into ingnoant bliss.

The minimum wage machine pays the user minimum wage in real-time in pennies– the smallest unit of currency in the US. Being in NY, with minimum wage at $7.15 an hour, this equates to 1 penny every 5.035 seconds. The machine has a crank attached to an antique change sorting machine (circa 1913, ebay) and by belt to a small DC motor (salvaged from a printer). The crank turns the motor’s shaft which, in turn, acts as a small generator. The voltage produced goes through a 5V regulator and powers a Basic Stamp. It also powers a stepper motor (same printer) moving a small wheel at the mouth of the change sorter and a small motor inside the change reservoir of the machine. 

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In the future, I see possibility in a lot of these machines hooked into a grid, with people performing basic human labor for money. Perhaps a new form of renewable energy generation? A new kind of supercomputer with thousands of people performing basic calculations at minimum wage “stations” across the world? Who knows?

The way I see it. This could be a great way to lower obesity rates and eliminate hobos. We just have to make sure not to tell the people who work at McDonald's about this until their jobs are taken over by robots.

Source from Make