Conceived by London-based design studio Haque Design, Natural Fuse concept is a citywide-networked system of electronically assisted plants that reflects our energy-use (or disuse) quite visibly. Each Natural Fuse unit – allotted to an individual or a single household – contains a houseplant and a power socket. As a plant can offset only a certain amount of carbon, it becomes the power limit of the socket. However, several such units are linked via internet (such as RFID and Pachube ) to compensate one’s overuse of electrical energy.
A selfless/selfish switch replaces the regular on/off switch. If the system is in selfless/off mode, it means that your energy consumption is well below your fixed quota and you can avail the remotely activated water controlling system. However, if it is in selfish/on mode, it implies exactly the opposite of it and you lose the moral right to water your dying plants. So, your selfish attitude could kill your plants and others’ as well.
As NextNature puts it:
Each unit actually has three ‘lives’ to lose, before which a vinegar shot is dispensed to the unlucky plant. The system then sends an email both to the owner and the owner that sent a ‘kill’ signal. If people cooperate on energy expenditure then the plants thrive (and everyone may use more energy). But if people don’t cooperate, then the network starts to randomly kill plants.
