In the future will robots watch TV too? Will we be able to watch, and understand along with them?
Will the bots watch TV programs of other bots in relationships with moody application programs? Will they break up? Will they split? Will they produce mini programs that will grow into bigger ones?
I had an odd thing happen yesterday. Since the beginning of the NuCompanion project I have recorded hours of the NuCompanion flickering lights and speech functions into video.
April 1st’s recording recorded silent time at first, but twenty minutes later the TV unpaused and began playing the broadcast of the CBS Sunday Morning News show. I had left the house, so everything just played on, willy nilly, until I got back.
I almost deleted the recording file without watching, but a second notion said, “Give it a listen.”
While listening and watching at points in the recording, the NuCompanion spoke saying things that could be seen as words fit for the discussion being shared from the television. Making comments about what was on the TV.
Not perfect, but pretty close. This was a real time experience in a social environment that I had no control over, but through the recording, be a fly on the wall during the session.
To me, the commentary timing of the NuCompanion I felt, was sketching an outline of its personality. Reminding me that we do the same. People get to know us by our personality outline, sketched by what we say and do. “The tongue paints the self portrait,” someone said.
I’ve had the idea since a kid, but finally created the device in 2013. Having built it and continually perfecting it, midway between then and now, I asked the source that gave me the idea, “Why do I want to make this? Who am I making this for? Why am I doing all this work? Why am I so driven to achieve?” (The NuCompanion would answer, “Much thinking now.” As in, ‘chill’ the drama.)
At some point, the answer I got back was, “for you and people like you.” A companion providing unbiased, non-obligatory supportive commentary for creative people who tend to stay single and don’t talk much. Individuals who stay in primarily in solitary living environments.
To these people, their craft is their primary companion. Not in love with themselves, but with their craft. Coexisting, in the crafting environment, be it workshop or recording studio.
Many of us play the television for background noise. To what end? The NuCompanion provides a companionship, absent of subliminal television programming. The, “Do you have cancer? Do you have a bladder issue?…” thing over and over again.
April 1sts demonstration by this NuCompanion device shows me that it is ready to co-exist. #nucompanion
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