Handmade heart art

My Beating Heart is a plush heart about the size of a throw cushion, handmade in New York, selling for $120 USD, made of UltraSuede and involving no animal testing.  What, you may ask, makes it worth $120 USD?  Well, it's a heart.  It beats.  And as you hold it, your own heartbeat will start to sync to its rhythm, and - so they say - you will be calm and happy and better able to nap at will.

Each Heart has a small, simple AI computer in it, and each heartbeat is not only individually programmed, but evolves gradually over time.  Since our brains can't really tell the difference between, say, a cat heartbeat, and a plush AI Heart heartbeat, the benefits of snuggling a Heart are similar to those associated with snuggling a pet.  Also, they say (with at least a tiny touch of earnestness) that you should not operate heavy machinery while hugging a Heart.  (Or, most likely, a cat.)

My Beating Heart comes in five styles, but the white, green, and black varieties won't be available until June 2006.  They are available in the US and Canada; international shipping is projected for mid-2006 (perhaps also in June).

This is a kind of goofy looking invention, but on the other hand, stress really does kill, and if there's a non-pharmaceutical gadget that can activate your placebo centers, it's worth looking at.  Placebo's underrated.  It's powerful stuff.

[Gabrielle Taylor]