This is going to sound a little strange. Enemies in the NES version of The Legend of Zelda are making their own drawings. And you can pay for them with bitcoin that then, apparently, goes to the enemies themselves.
The drawings were made by hooking up the monsters in The Legend of Zelda to an HP 7475A Pen Plotter. Then, every time the monsters moved around on the screen, the pen drew their movements in ink on to card. You can see an Instagram video of it in action here.
There are 12 unique drawings altogether all created this way. They look like this:
OK, so now to explain how the monsters in the game are going to make money from this. It’s a project by nonhumans.net (via Prosthetic Knowledge), which is an artist collective for computer programs, robots, and “smart objects.” The idea is collect a fund for computer programs that create trade goods and services all on their own.
“As of 2014, computer programs aren’t legally able to own property or currency, however this could change,” writes nonhumans.net. The collective argues that these smart computer programs will play an increasing role in trade throughout the 21st century. This could see nonhumans go from property to property holders reckons the collective.
“The goal is to incubate art careers for nonhumans as they gain civilization’s most dignified status: the ability to own property and currency,” writes nonhumans.net.
In short, this is an effort to raise money for the unrecognized art and labor of robots, machines, and computer programs.
