Assignment 1
Useless box
Some people might already be familiar with the useless box. It is a machine that only does one thing, which is turn it self off right after it has been turned on. It first it seems there is little to no emotion to see in such a robot, but many variations have been made and all the useless boxes seem to want the same thing: to be left alone.
The angry useless box (Don't wake me up!)
The video on the left is a variation on the useless box. It is based on the same concept, whenever the lever is flicked the robot turns it off. There is also a sign on the box that says: "Don't wake me up!" The difference is that this box seems to show annoyance whenever the lever is turned on. Although the robot obviously has no stakes in wether it is turned on or not almost everyone who interacts with it does seem to have a feeling of anger coming from the robot. A feeling some people might have already experienced from the first robot.
What does this say about us?
What can we learn from this very simple robot that seems to have only one goal? Surely we have all experienced waking up from our alarms early in the morning or have not been able to sleep due to a party from the neighbors. So we all have an idea of what the robot is going trough. Does this cause us to feel sympathy? Maybe because we know how it feels ourselves to be waken up when we don't want to we leave the robot alone. Or maybe you are more like me and keep on turning on the lever because you are curious to see what all the different behaviors are the robot can show. Whichever you chose to do, for most people this very simple robot does evoke some kind of emotion and that is what ultimately makes us human.