Cynicism is always warranted. Though, since it will never destroy itself, it’s a subject for some other thread.
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.
Those things do serve a purpose though, even if temporary.
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.
After bankruptcy, a new board of directors to Enron reformed the company into the Enron Creditors Recovery Corporation with the purpose of liquidating all assets and winding down Enron’s affairs.
When I read this thread, I thought of the works of 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.
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.
Karl Dönitz, 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.
[QUOTE=Wikipedia, Karl Dönitz article]
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.
[/quote]
This sounds like a version of Claude Shannon’s ‘Ultimate Machine’. (I used to have the animated gif on that site as an avatar on another board some time ago…)
How about the Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters “George”. It’s now defunct, having achieved its mission (albeit aided by the fall in number of sleeping car porters as well),