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A firm in Germany has actually built a fully functioning time machine. Only trouble is, it can only travel forwards in time, not backwards, so you couldn’t use it to go back and undo an unintentional naughtyness.

Called the Age Explorer, it looks like a red space suit - kind of like the ones they had in the film 2001 - and instantly ‘enables the young and fit to see what it’s like to be old and frail’. Basically, you turn into a 70 year old (although with better-than-expected bladder control).

The full story is on Deutsche Welle (in English), and it certainly makes old age sound like a miserable experience:

The suit’s red overalls have 13 pounds of weights sewn into them and pads strapped to the elbows and knees stiffen those joints. Walking across a large room wearing the suit becomes a slow, exhausting experience. The thick, red Age Explorer gloves have a Velcro-like substance sewn into them: Putting them on brings about instant arthritis, since any pressure applied to the hand feels like a thousand tiny needles digging into one’s flesh.

As if that weren’t enough, headphones, similar to the ear protection airport baggage handlers wear, take away a good deal of one’s hearing. A welder’s mask-like face shield robs the subject of his peripheral vision, its yellow glass leaves the world looking strange and blurred.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 21st, 2003 at 9:05 pm and is filed under Europe, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.