Curiosity Saved the Cat
Step 1: What makes us alive?
There are a couple of aspects that enter my mind when we discuss the "quality of creatureness"; caring versus cruelty potential, the capacity to love, feel, and more. But I realized these concepts were too abstract and broad to narrow down a single quality to be presented in an artificial creature. So, to narrow down my options, I looked to a creature dearest to my heart: a cat. Or, more specifically, my cat, Peachy. (He's the chonky boy in the picture.)
He often likes to explore around the neighborhood on his own, and when he's back inside the house, he pretty much eats and sleeps his life away. Despite that, however, he has a lot of love to give, and cuddles to match. But this got me thinking more about the definition of "quality of creatureness" and how things like hunger and fatigue are basic staples of all living beings. I'd also like to add curiosity to that list, as it is also a survival trait of living beings. You can't know what to eat if you're not curious about it, no? So I decided to focus a bit more on those, using my cat as a basis, and explore if things like this have been projected before in any other artificial creature.
Step 2: Finding others just like me! (Or rather, my cat.)
In the above video, the cat is obviously trained to take a coin when it is places in the marker on the box lid, and this action is derived from the toy cat bank. But I also want to focus on the toy for a bit. Here we can see that when we put a coin, a cat bot, an artificial creature, is programmed to take the coin when the button is pressed. This gives off the idea that when the coin is placed on that specific button, the cat bot appears to take it into its box, like a curious cat. And, indeed, this is demonstrated with a real cat who does the same action when trained. At the end of the video, you can even see the cat sniffing at all the coins he's collected, indicating the curiosity. You wonder if the cat bot would do the same within his toy box.
The concept of a tamagotchi is to have a virtual pet within a small screen with only three button controls, and you have to take care of the pet to watch it grow. This includes feeding it, playing with it, and letting it sleep at a certain time. Doing this long enough and you can watch your tamagotchi grow from a baby to an adult! I found this very similar from taking care of a cat, minus the cuddles, but the emotional connection is still there. We are prompted to feed and care for the virtual pet much like we do to a living pet, as if it was actually hungry and sleepy. If you neglect it, it will leave or die depending on each virtual bot, and while it all looks simulated, you still grow to worry about it, making you unable to ignore its needs.
Step 3: Let's go save the cat-bot we create.
Below is the idea of cat-bot. He simulates the possible cruelty/caring potential of humans when presented with a cat-like artificial creature. Will it be more compelling when the bot looks like a cute cat? Does it give off the feelings of a cat when they're hungry? These questions can compel us into thinking whether we are obligated to cater to the cat's hungry whims.
