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Emotional Bonding with Space Probes
bfwebster writes "Space.com has a story on the scientists and technicians working on the Mars rovers, Spirit and Oppotunity--and how they will react when the rovers finally break down, go silent, or otherwise die. Of course, humans becoming emotionally involved with hardware is high on the list of overused science fiction cliches (see I.14), and humans were naming (and anthropomorphizing) their cars long before they started doing it to their computers. Some argue that anthropomorphic design can ease end-user acceptance [PDF], with some interesting results among toys for children. On the other hand, when software manufacturers try to give our computers some 'personality', we tend to vehemently react against it--witness Microsoft's attempts with the much-loathed Bob and Clippy. And when our personal computers are aged or ailing or simply misbehaving, we usually are more than happy to put them out of our misery. So in the case of Spirit and Opportunity, the issue may be the large investment of time, money, and professional credibility in having two semi-autonomous rovers 100 million miles away function correctly. Best quote from the Space.com story: when Spirit, early into its mission, shut down for reasons then unknown, the Spirit mission manager happened to get a phone call from her husband. He asked her how her day had been, and she said, 'Well...I think I'm personally responsible for the loss of a $400 million national asset.' Doncha hate it when that happens?"
Give it up Markedroids, we don't need you!
Scientists bond to space probes because they created them. As a programmer, I have an attachments to the software I created; if someone unfairly criticizes it sometimes I can take it personally.
Things like Bob and Clippy are loathed because they were what the creator/Microsoft wanted, not necessarily what the users wanted. In these 2 specific cases they act like the end-user is a complete idiot (which may or may not be true). People take offense at hand holding if they can walk fine on their own.
Looking for a job?
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DON'T USE TUNAREZ!!!
If by that you mean the ridiculous knocking on the monitor to get your attention while you were trying to concentrate on something else, yes. The problem was not the anthropomorphism, but that some annoying little twit kept interrupting serious thought to announce something trivial you could deal with later.
Meatspace has the saying: "children should be seen and not heard." Microsoft ignored that.
When the news came down that SOHO was probably gone for good, otherwise very controlled, steady, Dave Bowman types were seen leaning against the wall weeping, or bawling in front of the console. It was as if we were all in mourning for a suddenly lost friend -- except that, another time, a member of the spacecraft team did pass away (for reasons of his own) and the collective gestalt emotion was not as strong about him as about the spacecraft itself. That's not a statement about the callousness of the individuals involved -- but rather about the strength of the emotional upset that came from the loss of the mission.
Perhaps that's because the mission becomes such a strong focus of the team's lives that it really does encroach on an emotional place normally reserved for our closest friends and family. We're conditioned, and society is structured, to deal with human tragedy; but losing our ``friend'' leaves us with an equally large void and no societal preparation for it.