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Attack of the giant 7-foot Humboldt Squid
If you own a Roomba, there’s now MyRoomBud — a company that will sell you clothing for it. You can choose from costumes including a frog, a cow, a pig, and — ay yi yi — a little french maid.
The web site asks some funny questions …
Have you ever:
1. named your Roomba?
2. talked to your Roomba?
3. spent more time watching your Roomba than it would take you to vacuum the room(ba)?
4. bought a second Roomba so your first would not be lonely?
Number 3 strikes me as the most philosophically interesting, because a) it’s true (I’ve done it myself!), and b) it neatly exposes the point that Sherry Turkle makes about artificial life: We attribute the highest level of “realness” to robots that are slightly hapless. The fun thing about watching a Roomba clean a room is that it appears to be endearingly devoted to its task, yet also kind of stupid; it rolls over the same place several times, gets stuck in corners and puzzles over how to get out, makes cute noises.
For years, sci-fi authors have mused over our impending future in which crystallinely intelligent robots manage our lives, relieve us from drudgery, and solve humanity’s problems with their 3.5 zettahertz brains. But the reality is completely the opposite. Omnipotent machines scare the hell out of us; we get freaked out at the idea of massive corporate/government databases that “know” more about us than we do. What we prefer are machines that are designed to be imperfect, cute, and even kind of useless. We want a robot that we can dress up like a frog, a pig, or a little cow.
But you people dressing your Roombas as french maids? You need help.
(Thanks to Morgan Noel for this one!)
I'm Clive Thompson, a writer on science, technology, and culture. This blog collects bits of offbeat research I'm running into, and musings thereon.
Currently, I'm a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Wired magazine. I also write for Fast Company and Wired magazine's web site, among other places. Email or AOL IM me (pomeranian99) to say hi or send in something strange!
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» visit the Collision Detection archives
September 26, 2008 » 01:57 PM
From an interview with ethnobotanist and anthropologist Wade Davis:
One of the cultures you celebrate in Light at the Edge of the World is the Inuit. What do you most admire about them?
Davis: The Inuit didn’t fear the cold; they took advantage of it. During the 1950s the Canadian government forced the Inuit into settlements. A family from Arctic Bay told me this fantastic story of their grandfather who refused to go. The family, fearful for his life, took away all of his tools and all of his implements, thinking that would force him into the settlement. But instead, he just slipped out of an igloo on a cold Arctic night, pulled down his caribou and sealskin trousers, and defecated into his hand. As the feces began to freeze, he shaped it into the form of an implement. And when the blade started to take shape, he put a spray of saliva along the leading edge to sharpen it. That’s when what they call the “shit knife” took form. He used it to butcher a dog. Skinned the dog with it. Improvised a sled with the dog’s rib cage, and then, using the skin, he harnessed up an adjacent living dog. He put the shit knife in his belt and disappeared into the night.
September 25, 2008 » 11:21 AM
“Video from a camp north of Toronto in December 2005 shows a car spinning around in a nearby, snow-covered parking lot. Prosecutors characterized that as special driver training but the defense, and many outsiders, said it was nothing more than “cutting doughnuts,” a favorite winter pastime of young Canadian motorists.” - A key piece of evidence submitted in the trial of a gang of alleged young Canadian terrorists.
September 24, 2008 » 11:21 PM
“Life imitates art imitating life: just thought a gnat crawling across my monitor was part of a Flash-based ad. I clicked it.” - A Tweet from Bill Braine.
September 24, 2008 » 02:37 PM
“Funniest FB friend request ever: “Twitter friend hoping to get to second base (Facebook!) ;-).”” - A recent Tweet by Pistachio
September 24, 2008 » 12:28 PM
Chinese powdered-milk crisis creates a new market: The return of the wet nurse
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