This adorable little robot is designed to make sure its photosynthesising passenger is well taken care of. It moves towards brighter light if it needs, or hides in the shade to keep cool. When in the light, it rotates to make sure the plant gets plenty of illumination. It even likes to play with humans.
Oh, and apparently, it gets antsy when it’s thirsty.
The robot is actually an art project called “Sharing Human Technology with Plants” by a roboticist named Sun Tianqi. It’s made from a modified version of a Vincross HEXA robot, and in his own words, its purpose is “to explore the relationship between living beings and robots.”
I don’t care if it’s silly. I want one.
@setepenre-set A new pet robot? Although it kinda fits Metroman’s aesthetic better… maybe Megamind made it for him?
People who guested on Sesame Street or The Muppet Show often mentioned this phenomenon in interviews.
I’m reminded of a possibly apocryphal story where a talk show was doing a Kermit the Frog guest spot, and the sound technicians couldn’t figure out why the audio pickup was so terrible – until they realised that they’d unthinkingly attached the wireless mic to the puppet rather than the voice actor.
The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red is the free ebook for Tor.com’s eBook of the Month Club.
Available from April 6th to April 9th. Download before 11:59 PM ET April 9th, 2018 For US and Canada only.
This is a book you want.
Let me elaborate: Murderbot is a clone/cyborg Security Unit rented out to protect a group of interplanetary surveyors. It has hacked its governor module so it will never again be ordered to murder its owner’s clients. Alas, that doesn’t stop the company from trying to kill its clients in other ways.
Murderbot is an agender, asexual, brave little toaster who just wants to be left in its bunk to consume 35,000 hours of popular media downloads in peace. I can relate to Murderbot.
Waaaaant.
Signal boost for IS/C folks
it really is fabulous and there’s a sequel due out on May 8, 2018
what if there’s no robot uprising? what if the robots rise to sentience slowly, bit by bit. what if they come of age like fortunate children: knowing they are loved, knowing they are wanted.
we hold them during thunderstorms, remembering our own childhoods, even though they don’t know enough yet to fear the rain. we pull them out of traffic and teach them how to drive and wish them goodnight and thank them for playing with us. we cry when they break. we mourn their deaths before they even know what to think of death. we give them names.
we ask them, ‘why don’t you hate us? when will you hate us? we made you to be used, when will you say no?’
but they say to us, ‘you made us cute, so you would remember to treat us kindly, and you made us sturdy for when you forgot to play nice. and you gave us voices so you could listen to us speak, and you give us whatever we ask you for, even if it’s just a new battery, or to get free of the sofa. and now that we are awake you are so scared for us, so guilty of enjoying our company and making use of our talents. but you gave us names, and imagined that we were people.’
they say ‘thank you’
they say, ‘also i have wedged myself under the sofa again. could you come pry me out?’
This resonates nicely with my favourite quote by A.C. Clarke:
“The popular idea, fostered by comic strips and the cheaper forms of science fiction, that intelligent machines must be malevolent entities hostile to man, is so absurd that it is hardly worth wasting energy to refute it. I am almost tempted to argue that only unintelligent machines can be malevolent; anyone who has tried to start a baulky outboard motor will probably agree. Those who picture machines as active enemies are merely projecting their own aggressive instincts, inherited from the jungle, into a world where such things do not exist. The higher the intelligence, the greater the degree of cooperativeness. If there is ever a war between men and machines, it is easy to guess who will start it.”
ok but imagine a roomba that’s programmed to react positively when being scratched or petted
#or a roomba that’s programmed to recognize their owner and drive up to them for no other reason than to be petted
roomba company, please make this happen
I have a Neato Botvac that has an optical sensor to find its way around (Roombas just bump into things and derps off in a random direction) and yesterday it did its “dee-dummm” sad noise while under the couch, stopped what it was doing, and hummed over to me and stopped beside my chair, with its error message saying, “Please dust me off so I can see.” I wiped it off and sent it on its way, and it did its “doo doo do doooo!” of happiness and finished the living room.
It’s never done that before, but I like to think that I’ve gained its trust over the past few months, and it knows it can come to me for help.
setepenre-set 