standby

The register at issue: a modem's blinking light, a fan, a monitor left on. Clearly doing something without going anywhere — active, indifferent, exhausting to keep half-attending to. It is also the argument for stillness. Braitenberg's vehicles moved, and the psychology attributed to them was read off a trajectory; the devices actually producing these effects do not move at all. A phone does not approach. A monitor does not withdraw. Stillness is not a limitation inherited from budget. It is the correct formal choice for modelling instruments rather than organisms, and it is what puts the burden of movement on the beholder: the object holds still, and the encounter is durational because a body approaches, lingers, and leaves.