What I have to start with

sorting out my thoughts:
* hardware and software are politically charged- they are driven by money and controlled by power
* every interaction with a computer interface of any kind is thus a politically charged interaction
* I cannot make interaction non-political
* I can bring out the facts that everything is political by peeling off as many layers as I can and marking whatever layers I can't peel off
* creating a computer interface, both on the hardware and on the software side, that will enable as much direct interaction and will expose as much of the process of what is going on both in the physical sense (which part is working now) and on the virtual sense (what is the binary code running on the machine right now, that is making it do what it's doing)
* allowing direct physical interaction- The user is approaching the exposed machine, and is responsible for it's operation- the system required as much honesty from the user as it is trying to be honest to them. I think this will require the user to touch the machine in order to keep it running.