Entities formed with the sole or primary purpose of bringing about their own demise/destruction

[Mangetout]

I was thinking about the delicious futility of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fXN7x7a5So) object the other day (a machine that is designed to unplug its own power supply), and another device I saw a while back consisting of a box with a switch on it which, when flicked, a lever would emerge from a flap and turn the switch off again.

Then I got to thinking about cases where, say, a steel works is closing and a few employees set up their own company to manage the closure, demolish and salvage the buildings, plant, etc, after which the company winds itself up.

I think the concept of an entity whose primary purpose is to knowingly bring about its own end is quite fascinating - in a melancholy sort of way. What other examples of this phenomenon can you think of?
I'm not really talking about humans committing suicide, so it would be good if we don't have to dwell entirely on that.

[Morbo]

I know of several instances where a test automation harness was written by the QA department, then deployed in production to replace the QA department.

[Lord Feldon]

The last Legislative Council of New Zealand (the then-upper house of the Parliament) was packed with a "suicide squad" appointed to abolish the house.

[Greg Charles]

Most charitable organizations are examples, aren't they? I mean inasmuch as their goals are attainable, then attaining the goals would take away the purpose of the charity. If people stop driving drunk, then no more MADD. If we cure cancer, then no more American Cancer Society.

[TimeWinder]

The L5 Society. Its stated mission is to dissolve itself at the first meeting held at either the L4 or L5 Lagrange points:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L5_Society

[Mr. Excellent]

Most charitable organizations are examples, aren't they? I mean inasmuch as their goals are attainable, then attaining the goals would take away the purpose of the charity. If people stop driving drunk, then no more MADD. If we cure cancer, then no more American Cancer Society.

Some organizations just change their goals, though. The March of Dimes would be a classic example. Originally, they were meant to stamp out polio. With this done, they switched to premature birth.

[MEBuckner]

There's the United Nations Trusteeship Council (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Trusteeship_Council); somewhat along the same lines, a successful peacekeeping mission (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Nations_peacekeeping_missions) will presumably end with the end of the organization itself.

[WhyNot]

Some organizations just change their goals, though. The March of Dimes would be a classic example. Originally, they were meant to stamp out polio. With this done, they switched to premature birth.

With stops at treating and preventing birth defects and SIDS in between. I've always admired March of Dimes for just this flexibility and willingness to accept reality. It's wonderful that they are honest enough to admit when they've done all they can, and it's time to pick a new cause.

Seems a harder thing to do if your very name is American [Disease] Society.

[FlyByNight512]

Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=KxaWvJ-ziXA) is the machine that turns itself off. The inventor made another machine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtIx5F3516c&feature=related) with similar goals that I found quite amusing as well.

[azraiel]

If people stop driving drunk, then no more MADD.

If only. MADD is a neo-temperance movement, so much so that its founder quit the organization in 1985 over disagreement with policy direction.

Personally, I've encountered MADD lobbying against the licensing of farm wineries and craft distilleries in my state. Neither of these have a thing to do with drunk driving, except the overarching bugaboo of alcohol.

It may as well call itself the New Woman's Christian Temperance Union, except that the WCTU still exists.

[/hijack]

[Little Nemo]

Pretty much all bombs.

[njtt]

Pretty much all bombs.

A bomb's primary purpose is rarely to destroy itself. That is just incidental to the actual primary purpose of destroying other things.

[Mangetout]

I did wonder if I should mention bombs - but yeah, their purpose us to destroy other things.

Fireworks might qualify.

[Nava]

The regional party to which I belong has as its primary purpose a change in the Spanish Constitution. The party's regs indicate that once that objective is achieved we'll dissolve. Whether that means our people will spread around other parties with similar ideologies, or one or more new parties will pop up remains to be seen, of course, but I for one wouldn't mind getting to see it.

[Isamu]

Would a star qualify? I don't mean like Whitney, but an astral body. Matter brought together to burn itself out.

[Nava]

I don't think Gravity is that purposeful, Isamu, or that it gets cold hands. Make it smaller and we'll accept bonfires.

[Aspidistra]

I have a memory that one of the policy platforms of theSun Ripened Warm Tomato Party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Ripened_Warm_Tomato_Party) was to abolish the new ACT Legislative Assembly, to which it was seeking election. I can't find proof of this on the internets though. It was a while ago. They were certainly formed with the intention of not taking the event very seriously.

[CalMeacham]

A bomb's primary purpose is rarely to destroy itself. That is just incidental to the actual primary purpose of destroying other things.

I have to disagree with this -- the bomb's purpose is to destroy itself and other things.


A Bomb that destroyed other things, but not itself would be an armorer's dream. We have such automated devices now -- things like unmanned drones. But people don't call them bombs -- they're given other names, specific to the task. If anyone built a non-self-destroying bomb, it would be called something else. otherwise it would be mistaken, in conversation or writing, with the self-destroying device. The word "bomb" pretty much implies self destruction. If a non-self-destroying "bomb" comes up, it gets called something else.

[Mangetout]

However, if a bomb destroys only itself, it's probably not served its purpose.

It's a borderline case, at best.

[WhyNot]

Likewise, a bonfire is built to create light and heat or to appease some gods or purify your cattle or signal your neighbors or have something to play drums and pass the mead around.

A bonfire with no purpose other than burning is just an accidental fire.

[CalMeacham]

However, if a bomb destroys only itself, it's probably not served its purpose.

It's a borderline case, at best.

Yeah, but it does happen all the time with bombs. Just because a non-zero (actually a pretty high) failure rate exists doesn't necessarily make it "borderline"

[Chessic Sense]

The menstrual cycle. When it's on, it's busy turning itself off. When it's off, it's busy turning itself on.

[pdunderhill]

Here's an idea, what about that part of the WHO, World Health Organisation, dedicated to eliminating Polio?
Peter

[tdn]

The National Procrastinators Society.

The next meeting time is TBA.

[Mangetout]

Yeah, but it does happen all the time with bombs. Just because a non-zero (actually a pretty high) failure rate exists doesn't necessarily make it "borderline"

But when it does only destroy itself, it's a failure, not a fulfilment of purpose - therefore the purpose is not primarily to destroy itself. That's the dividing line, to my mind.

[CalMeacham]

The National Procrastinators Society.

The next meeting time is TBA.






I once took a course on procrastination.

I showed up for the first class and they flunked me.




(ba-da-Bomp-(tissssssss))

[tdn]

I once took a course on procrastination.

I showed up for the first class and they flunked me.

Not right away, I hope.

[Smeghead]

The menstrual cycle. When it's on, it's busy turning itself off. When it's off, it's busy turning itself on.

To be fair, the same could be said for dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of other biological cycles.

[Alka Seltzer]

Charlie Sheen?

[Marley23]

If we cure cancer, then no more American Cancer Society.
Only if nobody is ever diagnosed with cancer again. Otherwise, even if many of the charity's goals have been achieved, patients would still need different kinds of support after diagnosis.

[cerberus]

The parts of a cell involving apoptosis.

[Filbert]

How about the Voluntary Human Exinction Movement (http://www.vhemt.org/)?

[cjepson]

Motors Liquidation Company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motors_Liquidation_Company) may be an example of what the OP is asking for.

[Projammer]

How about movie models and props? Crews spend hundreds of hours constructing detailed scale models of planes, trains, & death stars fully cognizent of the fact that their efforts will wind up scattered across a warehouse floor somewhere.

Less so with improvements in CGI, but still.

[alphaboi867]

The last Legislative Council of New Zealand (the then-upper house of the Parliament) was packed with a "suicide squad" appointed to abolish the house.

The first, only, only democraticly elected Volkskammer of East Germany had a mandate focused entirely on dissolving the state getting it's territory annexed to West Germany.

[Martin Hyde]

A lot of trusts are like this. People often think of trusts as either a 19th century form of corporate organization that lead to monopoly abuses or things rich people set up for their family. Both of those things are true but a trust is generically just a special type of legal relationship that can be put to many different uses.

One type of trust is a natural resource trust. The "Great Northern Iron Ore Trust" is essentially a legal vehicle which owns rights to collect fees or royalties on a large swathe of land in the Mesabi Iron Range in Minnesota. It was created in 1906 by the people who ran the Great Northern Railroad Company and is still in effect today, but it is basically hard coded to eventually die. In just a few years now 20 years will have passed since the death of the last person explicitly named in the original trust document, and at that point no new person can buy into the trust (right now you can buy into it on the open market.) After that it will continue to exist to distribute earnings and such but will slowly die down.

Some natural resource trusts are tied specifically to a certain supply of natural resources, and the ones tied to non-renewable resources are expected to dissolve at some point.

(These create interesting investment vehicles by the way, with extremely high dividend yields of 10% and sometimes higher, but the share price in these trusts is essentially guaranteed to decrease over time as the trust's legal lifetime comes to an end.)

[Boyo Jim]

Some organizations just change their goals, though. The March of Dimes would be a classic example. Originally, they were meant to stamp out polio. With this done, they switched to premature birth.

Excellent choice! They'll never eliminate that. Even babies born 5 minutes early can keep them in the fundraising game.

[Diceman]

Motors Liquidation Company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motors_Liquidation_Company) may be an example of what the OP is asking for.
There's a similar entity for Chrysler's unwanted assets. I think it's called "Old Carco."

[WhyNot]

Excellent choice! They'll never eliminate that. Even babies born 5 minutes early can keep them in the fundraising game.

I feel that, in this case, your cynicism isn't warranted. They didn't eliminate birth defects, either, or even SIDS. They raised a ton of awareness, brought the rates of their various goal ailments WAY down, and then looked at the new normal and said, "Yep, this is about as far as we can reasonably go with this one without throwing money down a hole; let's find a new goal." When they look at their graphs and see the numbers of preemies leveling off at a new, lower number, they'll find something else to work on.

Seriously...there's not another charitable organization I love more than The March of Dimes, and I'm usually a cynical bastard about nonprofits. They rock.

[MsRobyn]

Excellent choice! They'll never eliminate that. Even babies born 5 minutes early can keep them in the fundraising game.

As WhyNot points out, not really. And I support MoD for the same reasons she does. They're a good group that does good work. Their main mission is to make sure that babies are born healthy, and to support the families of children who aren't. They do this by funding research and raising awareness of birth defects, premature birth, and just about anything that will ensure healthy babies. Hell, some of the research they did on Group B strep made sure that the sprog was born healthy and, more importantly, lived long enough to see his one-month birthday. I make sure I send them a few bucks every year to celebrate that.

[Boyo Jim]

Cynicism is always warranted. Though, since it will never destroy itself, it's a subject for some other thread.

[StusBlues]

The Peace Corps bills itself this way. When I went to a briefing session, I was told explicitly that the goal of every mission was to make itself unnecessary.

[tdn]

How about movie models and props? Crews spend hundreds of hours constructing detailed scale models of planes, trains, & death stars fully cognizent of the fact that their efforts will wind up scattered across a warehouse floor somewhere.

Those things do serve a purpose though, even if temporary.

[Boyo Jim]

When their purpose is to be seen to be destroyed, or more correctly to have their destruction recorded, such as an exploding Death Star, I think that fits the criteria of the OP. There were probably numerous Death Star models and at least one of them was built specifically to be destroyed.

[tdn]

When their purpose is to be seen to be destroyed, or more correctly to have their destruction recorded, such as an exploding Death Star, I think that fits the criteria of the OP. There were probably numerous Death Star models and at least one of them was built specifically to be destroyed.

Ah, I didn't get that Projammer meant models that were meant to be blown up, I was thinking of any movie props.

[pravnik]

After bankruptcy, a new board of directors to Enron reformed the company into the Enron Creditors Recovery Corporation (http://www.enron.com/) with the purpose of liquidating all assets and winding down Enron's affairs.

[SirRay]

When I read this thread, I thought of the works of Jean Tinguely (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Tinguely) and his self-destructing art - I think that other artists followed, and I guess judging from FlyByNight512 link they are still at it today (are self-destructing art pieces classfied as sculpture or performance art?)

I thought about those mega-domino set-ups and rube-goldberg type pieces, but I think they fall more into the "movie props to be destroyed for entertainment" category rather than destruction for desctruction's sake.

[FlyByNight512]

I thought about those mega-domino set-ups and rube-goldberg type pieces, but I think they fall more into the "movie props to be destroyed for entertainment" category rather than destruction for desctruction's sake.

I suppose if you want to dissect it far enough, all of these things (including the box that blows itself up) exist for the purpose of human entertainment and not solely for their own destruction. Even compulsive behavior, such as repeatedly stacking up and knocking over blocks, is for the purpose of soothing the person's anxiety. But I'm not sure if we want to be that literal for the purpose of this thread.

[Senegoid]

Karl Dönitz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_D%C3%B6nitz), successor to Adolf Hitler, was named by Hitler in his will to become the next Führer. He took this post, pretty much for the sole purpose of surrendering to the Allies, and trying to arrange that the German soldiers should surrender to the Western Allies rather than to the Soviets who would presumably have butchered them outright.

On 30 April 1945, after the death of Adolf Hitler and in accordance with Hitler's last will and testament, Dönitz was named Hitler's successor as Staatsoberhaupt (Head of State), with the title of Reichspräsident (President) and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. On 7 May 1945, he ordered Alfred Jodl to sign the German instruments of surrender in Rheims, France.[3] Dönitz remained as head of the Flensburg Government, as it became known, until it was dissolved by the Allied powers on 23 May.

[Half Man Half Wit]

I was thinking about the delicious futility of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fXN7x7a5So) object the other day (a machine that is designed to unplug its own power supply), and another device I saw a while back consisting of a box with a switch on it which, when flicked, a lever would emerge from a flap and turn the switch off again.
This sounds like a version of Claude Shannon's 'Ultimate Machine (http://www.kugelbahn.ch/sesam_e.htm)'. (I used to have the animated gif on that site as an avatar on another board some time ago...)

As Arthur C. Clarke describes it:
Nothing could be simpler. It is merely a small wooden casket, the size and shape of a cigar box, with a single switch on one face. When you throw the switch, there is an angry, purposeful buzzing. The lid slowly rises, and from beneath it emerges a hand. The hand reaches down, turns the switch off and retreats into the box. With the finality of a closing coffin, the lid snaps shut, the buzzing ceases and peace reigns once more. The psychological effect, if you do not know what to expect, is devastating. There is something unspeakably sinister about a machine that does nothing -- absolutely nothing -- except switch itself off. (http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/the_unspeakable.php)

[lisiate]

How about the Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters "George" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_the_Prevention_of_Calling_Sleeping_Car_Porters_%22George%22). It's now defunct, having achieved its mission (albeit aided by the fall in number of sleeping car porters as well),