It's one thing to build the most useless machine, but artist Thijs Rijkers takes things one big step further; his machines actively destroy themselves.

Thijs has built two different death-seeking models so far. The sand machine pours sand into its own churning gearbox, causing its cogs to wear away into total uselessness. The saw machine, meanwhile, rakes a quartet of rusty saws over its very engine block, slowly working its way to death by a slash to the mechanical heart.

Obviously this is art; there's no practical purpose to be had here. But Rijkers says the goal is to try and make us meatbags feel some empathy for these destructive hunks of metal. And how could you not; we have so much in common. [Thijs Rijkers via Laughing Squid]