There’s a cultural phenomenon, one that has been growing for the
past decade, of hobbyist hackers exemplified by Make Magazine
and TechShop. These hackers want to have the experience of
building something in the physical world while still applying
the tools and techniques of computing. With the rise of open
hardware platforms like Arduino—even whole systems like the
Raspberry Pi for $25—it’s surprisingly affordable for people to
program their own electronics. The key to design when working on
such projects is to decompose a problem into its constituent
actions, to figure out what can be done by the programmable
hardware vs. what must be done using other (e.g., more
conventionally mechanical) components, and then to assemble the
pieces into a working whole. While I can’t say I have any deep
experience working on such projects, for some time I’ve been
wondering whether the same ideas can be applied in a direction
of more interest and perhaps of more importance. How can we
solve a problem (in a garden, say), wit