Challenge #01809-D348: Uncanny Interaction
We like talking to inanimate objects so much, we've started making the technology for inanimate objects to talk back. -- TheDragonsFlame
People are well known for talking to their Roombas. Technology so stupid that it doesn't know where it's been, and can barely detect when it's trapped. Never before has a single, real world device trained intelligent beings to respond to a string of musical beeps.
And after a while, customers blogged about their Stupid Roomba Tricks. Comments like, "Mine just loves to get itself stuck in the pantry corner," or "It gets into the chairs and can't figure out how to get out," and, "This silly thing keeps getting stuck under our bed." People assigned them personalities. People also taped knives to them and called them names like 'Mr Stabby', but that's just humans being humans.
There were other reports. People apologizing for getting in their Roomba's way. People encouraging theirs when it seemed to be having difficulty. People chiding it for trying to 'eat' cables or strings. There was already a thriving market for little Roomba outfits. People treated their little automatic vacuum like a cat.
The company responsible took good note of this, and figured out how to make their machines smarter. How to make them respond. How to get them to -well- not do so many Stupid Roomba Tricks. They kept to the musical beeps and boops, but made it recognise human phrases like, "to the left," "to the right," "come on," "back up," "back out," and "stop." Simple commands for a simple machine, in combination with some mapping algorithms associated with its wheel movements and when it intersected with blockages.
Those were the first edition of Roombas that did not get the "Mr Stabby" treatment. Humanity unanimously declared them to be 'too smart'. When, in fact, they had the intelligence capacity of the average chicken. On the other hand, the performance reviews were fantastic. The new, smarter Roomba got top marks for performance and response.
Except...
It was... 'creepy'. Or 'eerie'. Or 'disturbing'. And extended research revealed that there was an uncanny valley for responsiveness in non-humanoid machines, as well as the appearance of humanoid ones.
They went back to the 'stupid' machines with no real intelligence at all. And humans loved them for all their faults.
...and started taping knives to them again.
Because humans are insane.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / lavsen]
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Omg, lol. This was super funny, and I can probably see myself talking to said robot, most of which will probably not be nice things. Nothing like getting the crap scared out of you, or your foot run over, when you were not expecting the blasted thing to be popping out of nowhere (in others homes). Thanks for the laugh :-)