Wear Evolving Tools

"An escalator can never break. It can only become stairs. You would never see an 'Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order' sign, just 'Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience.'"-Mitch Hedberg

There are simple examples of what might be called "wear-evolving tools" everywhere. A lot of the tools one encounters in the world amount to combinations of other tools. As use takes its toll on a tool, the underlying tools which compose the original emerge. However, the simple tools that emerge can rarely compete with equivalent, new tools designed from the start with a specific purpose. A broken-down car might be considered, at best, a piece of furniture. At the very least it is an ungainly paperweight. Mitch Hedberg's escalator- to-staircase idea is perhaps one of the most elegant examples.

What if designers accounted for the wear of a tool in its initial design, so that as it became ineffective when used for its original purpose, it became more valuable as some other kind of tool? Often, for safety reasons, they do. The autogyro, for instance, is a powered helicopter-like craft. Should its engine fail, it becomes a maneuverable glider.

I think that the effect of use and the effect of the environment on most objects can be fairly accurately predicted. I have a hunch that if enough effort were put into the design of something, it would be possible to manufacture things which, instead of becoming totally useless with age, simply become something different.

Imagine engines with only a few "high- level" parts. As these parts wear, they can be used to replace smaller parts in the same engine. The engine could be run indefinitely as long as the highest-level components are replaced as they are worn and shift function.