A. Inventions

See also the Index.

V.

No. 70. Clavichordi Sex Partes
No. 69. Efficiency Keyboards
No. 68. Sound Scrubber
"Standard (Imperial) Zodiac Signs" from the Apocryphal Inventions project by Jonathan Hoefler
No. 66. ‘Cube Power’ Psychic Amplifier
No. 65. Alignment Calendars

IV.

No. 64. Swap Machines
No. 63. Mechanical Marinetti
No. 62. Divine Symbology of the Celestial Benevolence Welcome Center
No. 61. Tetrachromacy Testers
No. 60. Heart Machines
No. 59. Artificial Hearts
No. 58. Miscellaneous Adapters
No. 57. Firehouse Alarm Systems
No. 56. Eschatons
No. 55. Dehomogenization Machines
No. 54. Viola Della Cooperazione
No. 53. The Anderthalb
No. 52. Purple Chip Bag Closures
No. 51. Chip Bag Closures
No. 50. Climbing Gear
No. 49. The Mystical Vaults of Qiang-Shen

III.

"WWII Ration Meters" by Jonathan Hoefler, from the Apocryphal Inventions project.
No. 47. The Dragon Lyre
No. 46. Home Monitoring Machines
No. 45. Colt's Desk Accessories
No. 44. Precision Coffee Scales
No. 43. Film Transition Machines
No. 42. Rademacher Musical Keyboards, Part 4
No. 41. Leyden Jars
No. 40. Koenig's Movie System
No. 39. Stereoscopic Printing Presses
No. 38. Board Games
No. 37. Elam's Ending-State Energy System
No. 36. Color Capture Devices
No. 35. Assaying Machines
No. 34. Taxiscopes
No. 33. Musikalischer Wunderschrank

II.

No. 32. Proprietary Kitchen Devices
No. 31. Phobia Cuckoo Clocks
No. 30. Century Bells
No. 29. Southwell's Specialty Typewriters
No. 27. Dutch Air Machines
No. 26. Rademacher Musical Keyboards, Part 3
No. 25. New Year's Devices
No. 24. Hooke’s Room-Ring System
No. 23. Carriage Bridles
No. 22. Les Médaillons-Secrets
No. 21. Mechanical Snowflakes
No. 20. Chalceia Tree
No. 19. Seltzer Makers
No. 18. Keyed Pipe Harp (Arpòdigon)
No. 28. TX-8 Audio Processor
No. 17. Spirit Levels

I.

No. 16. Measuring and Alignment Devices
No. 15. Calling Card Blotting Presses
No. 14. The Multimodal Esserscope
No. 13. Time-Machines
No. 12. Elevator Interpreters
No. 11. Bélanger's Tool and Die Catalog
No. 10. Steganographic Encoders
No. 9. Rademacher Musical Keyboards, Part 2
No. 8. Mollusk-Made Typewriters
No. 7. Chromotelegraphic Machines
No. 6. Acoustical Food Shapers
No. 5. Schrijnemakers' Dioramas
No. 4. Gow’s Sensory Apparatuses
No. 3. Ticket-Taking Devices
No. 2. Rademacher Musical Keyboards
No. 1. Early Typewriters

The objects in the Apocryphal Inventions series are technical chimeras, intentional misdirections coaxed from the generative AI platform Midjourney. Instead of iterating on the system’s early drafts to create ever more accurate renderings of real-world objects, creator Jonathan Hoefler subverted the system to refine and intensify its most intriguing misunderstandings, pushing the software to create beguiling, aestheticized nonsense. Some images have been retouched to make them more plausible; others have been left intact, appearing exactly as generated by the software. The accompanying descriptions, written by the author, offer fictitious backstories rooted in historical fact, which suggest how each of these inventions might have come to be.

These images represent some of AI’s most intriguing answers to confounding questions — an inversion of the more urgent debate, in which it is humanity that must confront the difficult and existential questions posed by artificial intelligence.