Hardware · build

GUAR tester: a hardware RNG probing human intent

Roni Bandini built a device to see whether a person's intention can nudge a hardware-generated random sequence off course.

Can I build this?Intermediate · AI 4/5 · $15–40

Difficulty: Intermediate
AI-buildability: 4/5
Time: A weekend
Cost: $15–40

Tools

soldering ironmicrocontroller development board

Starter prompt

Based on "GUAR tester: a hardware RNG probing human intent" on Afterware: https://afterware.xyz/p/guar-tester-a-hardware-rng-probing-human-intent

Write firmware for an ESP32 that reads a hardware random number generator and streams 1,000 bytes per second over serial. Add a button that marks a timestamp, and log each marked window to a CSV. Then write a Python script that computes the bit-bias of each window so I can compare intentional and baseline runs.

Estimates based on the original write-up. How AI-buildability is scored. Building with an AI assistant? Connect it to Afterware (free MCP server).

Story

The source gives only the premise: an experimental device built to explore whether human intention correlates with deviations in a hardware-generated random sequence. The idea is the hook. A hardware random source is supposed to be unpredictable, and this build asks whether a person's focus can leave a measurable trace in it.

The source doesn't describe the hardware, the parts or how the test runs, so there's no build detail to pass along. Treat this as a concept-level experiment rather than a how-to.