For The Love Of Robots
By Mark Steer
A recent study has found that people get emotionally attached to their robots. They name them, worry about them if they get into difficulty and generally treat them as though they were some kind of pet.Now this probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who remembers the story of the woman who was so worried about her Tamogotchi cyberpet that she stopped concentrating on driving and killed a passer-by. However, what’s most interesting about this study is what the researchers concluded.
To quote Beki Grinter, an associate professor at Georgia Tech who headed the research, “If we can design things that are somewhat emotionally engaging, it doesn't have to be as reliable.”
So that’s nice; manufacturers can assume that they can pass off ever more substandard, doomed-to-failure rubbish on us. As long as it’s got big cyber-eyes and a fluffy cyber-tail, we’ll all be happy as Larry.
However, I would like to caution robot manufacturers not to pay too much attention to these results – the study hardly took a particularly random sample from the population. Rather, the ‘scientists’ monitored an Internet forum where people can chat about their Roombas, which are robotic vacuum cleaners. Yes, that’s right, they studied people who talk to strangers about autonomous cleaning equipment.Who on Earth feels the need to chat about their hoover? Even if you have christened it, dressed it up and taken it to meet your parents (and no, I didn’t make that up, it happened), sane people don’t talk about this kind of stuff.
So, robotics manufacturers, listen up. We will not put up with shoddy workmanship, bad components and cut corners, no matter how endearing you try to make our washing machines.
If you want to join the Roomba revolution you can follow this link. But why not just stay with us and start your own:
- New diet - The Justice Diet
- New solutions - Global warming fixed
- New toys - Cool stuff from the Emerging Tech Symposium
- New moves - Robo-Einstein busts a groove
Image: iRobot
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