When thinking of human qualities, dancing instantly comes to mind. There are a lot of different contexts and reasons why humans dance. It can be alone or in groups. It can be for rituals, for performances, for fun or self-expression.
When watching this video of robots “dancing” I could not help myself from smiling. The robots just seemed to have so much fun! One starts out all on their own, then several others join the party, showing off all kinds of different moves. Combined with the catchy music, I really wanted to be there joining these critters.
The robots are not really dancing though. Of course I know that. These are these high-tech machines, expertly built with all sorts of limbs to move smoothly. They have been specifically programmed down to the smallest level to look like they are not only dancing, but also having a blast doing it.
Still, it is quite hard for me to see the cogs and wheels under the performance. In my eyes, I am seeing self-expression.
What I find very interesting about robot dance is how much it really confirms how much of a human quality it is. It is not like robots by themself wish to express their emotions through sudden dance. Instead what I am seeing is humans who really thought it would be fun and cute to go through all the effort of programming a dancing robot. Why? It is not like it is particularly useful to have robots dance. It is not effective or helpful for society in any way.
Nevertheless, the robots dance.
I think that is the human quality at its core: expressing fun and creativity not just through our own bodies, but through the artificial bodies we create.
The Dancerobot
A lot of dancing (at least for me, without much natural talent) is looking at what others do and copying it myself. It can be really fun to be in a group and dance the same way. It also creates a sense of togetherness and belonging to a group (which in itself is a quite human quality).
I got an idea for an artificial critter that knows a few different dance moves, but will not dance on its own. If a person comes up to it and starts performing one of the possible dance moves, the robot will start copying it and dance together with the person. It will stop when the person stops.
I also think it could be fun if the robot got “braver” the more people were dancing together with it. Maybe it could move very slowly if it only senses one person moving, but much faster when more people are there. I think that, in turn, would make the humans there feel less self-conscious about dancing and have more fun since they are in a bigger group and together.