Slashdot Mirror
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?"
Emotional Bond.
I don't know about everyone else, but *I* hated Bob and Clippy because they were not useful and quite aggrivating. Other things that lend toward personalization however, such as personalized menus, I find quite useful.
They hate that.
Geeks have to bond to machines. Real humans don't want us and can't be reprogrammed to want us :-P
Table-ized A.I.
People didn't react badly to the anthropomorphizing, they reacted badly to the patronizing tone. Nobody would complain if they started Office 2K5 and were greated by The Librarian.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Give it up Markedroids, we don't need you!
i don't want anyone thinking we're robosexuals...
and she said, 'Well...I think I'm personally responsible for the loss of a $400 million national asset.
Those women drivers... Sheesh!
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
You ruined Bobby, my favorite server. You slashdotting terrorists!
Table-ized A.I.
This story heading was so long I almost formed an emotional attachment with IT...
The fact that these things are robots has nothing to do with attachment. It's the time and devotion that has gone into creating, testing, and improving them. It's like how a lot of people get attached to their first cars (even though they are always rust-bucket deathtraps). If you have enough history with something, you'll probably miss it when it's gone.
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?
Want your resume written professionally?
DON'T USE TUNAREZ!!!
I think that the spectacular failures of Clippy and Bob have more to do with the attitudes of the characters themselves than the idea. It's like that really upbeat perky girl in the office whom everybody hates. Give me a sarcastic little bitch for a computer, and I'd be happy to embrace such tech...
And of course, the reason we love our computers so much:
10 Reasons Why Computers Are Better Than Girlfriends
1. You wouldn't bother to play Strip Poker all night with a girlfriend.
2. No girlfriend can hold your undivided attention for 30 hours in a stretch.
3. Your computer never wants to be taken out for dinner.
4. Your computer doesn't mind if you are unshaved, haven't showered this week or are sitting by it in your underwear.
5. If a computer gets a virus, it can be cleaned away.
6. No matter how ugly your computer is, you can show it to your friends.
7. With a computer, you can press the buttons without it getting sore.
8. A computer doesn't mind you using other computers as well.
9. You will never find your computer in bed with your best friend.
10. Computers never, EVER get a period.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
From the article:
:-)
For Spirit at Gusev Crater, it balked down early in its mission due to computer conniptions.
The writer was so using a thesaurus!
How can you NOT bond with a Mars rover. They were so cute when they were babies.
Table-ized A.I.
I have actually grown to 'bond' more with my computer the longer it continues to work. I've had this old beige G3 desktop for 6 years this month, and many times have tried to replace it with a newer model. The newer ones have all failed eventually, of course I didn't buy them brand new, but the old G3 keeps on chugging. All I've had to do is replace the ROM chip and a hard drive. Regardless of it's speed or lack thereof, it still manages to play Diablo II, and Civilization CTP without a hitch. So what I'm trying to say is, even as they get older and faster stuff becomes available, it's almost like they're remaining faithful.
Actually, there is a growing LiveJournal meme regarding spacer journals. Currently over two dozen of them. One of the communications satellites keeps a public friends filter of all of them available here:
HGS1's Spacers List
These journals are a blast to read. Check it out!
All I wanted was a rock to wind a piece of string around, and I ended up with the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota
This is something I've noticed with Hubble, except that we who deal with the technical side of it don't wax nearly as emotional about it as the astronomers who work with the data.
Exit, pursued by a bear.
I was about to say roughly the same thing... it wasn't the anthropomorphization that put people off, but what the little bastards would say and do.
However, it is important to note (and is consistant with the articles) that because they -were- anthroporphized, they provided a clearer target for our frustration than a simple pop-up window does.
What might have saved clippy is if they added a feature where the user could, Black&White style, pimp slap him upside the head whenever he did something aggravating and proceeded to grin at you about it. At least then we'd feel some emotional resolution to the frustrations these programs often cause rather than just having to stare at another box asking you to accept something you don't like or want by clicking 'ok'.
There are many things that are anthropomorphized like this in addition to cars. Ships have been given names for hundreds of years, and in fact it was only relatively recently that a well-respected maritime publication (I think it was Lloyd's of London's insurance books) that ceased to call ships "she", opting instead for the more mundane "it". This move attracted a lot of negative reaction (including from myself) since it flies in the face of longstanding tradition.
... probably to ward off bad luck and just because ships really do seem to have a personality.)
...
Only in a few places have ships been called 'he'; those include the Soviet Union, and the German navy had one exception to the 'she rule', the cruiser Bismarck - due to its size and strength - and in many Star Trek novels, Klingon ships are referred to with male pronouns in part because the Klingons originally were meant to be a stand-in for the Soviet Union and in part because the writers believed that a warrior society wouldn't "demean" its ships by giving them feminine names.
Sailors, long a superstitious lot, will say that it's bad luck to change a ship's name, or to launch a ship with no name (German U-boats only had numbers, as did the White Star fleet of Babylon 5; I would bet that German crews unofficially named their ships, as did one White Star captain in the television series
In the Volkswagen enthusiast community, of which I am a part, it is quite common to see people name their cars. While many people follow the common convention and refer to their vehicle as 'she', there are a few cases where the Soviet practice is followed and a masculine name given. I have known people outside the VW community who name their cars, and some non-enthusiasts who do, but in general the naming seems to crop up more often among people who are passionate about the thing they name. Car enthusiasts tend to spend a lot more time with their vehicles, cleaning, repairing, and modifying them with their own hands instead of letting a faceless shop tech do it, so they bond more with the car and the car's personality - they're there, just ask any sailor - will have an influence on the owner.
We also anthropomorphize animals - we name our pets, don't we? And we talk to them as if they could understand (though I would swear that they can, sometimes) and treat them as part of our families. Mergings of humans and animals have been found in folklore for thousands of years (the ancient Egyptian pantheon perhaps being one of the most well-known examples) as have animals that could talk to people or be talked to by people. This is generally accepted and no one thinks much of it.
However, for some reason, more modern interpretations of this practice ("furries" for instance) are generally frowned upon; why I am not certain because past history seems to hint that it's not so unusual to imagine humans with animal qualities, or animals with human qualities. I would be interested in hearing speculation on why this is from some other readers.
So I don't really think it's all that odd that the MER spacecraft have been humanized. They even, to a point, seem to look a bit like us with a 'pair of eyes' and an arm holding out sensors, just like a human can extend its hand to touch something to examine it. After all, history shows that it's
Only human.
i am a soviet space shuttle
On this screenshot you can clearly see what Microsoft's attitude to our money is...
Call me old fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating - Bender
Samir: No, not again. I... why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam? I swear to God, one of these days, I just kick this piece of sh-t out the window.
Michael Bolton: You and me both, man. That thing is lucky I'm not armed.
Samir: Piece of sh-t.
...that the scientists in JPL are already in an unhealthy state due to the difference between Earth's and Mars' day (as mentioned here).
This particular disequilibrium of sleep will accentuate the reactions to the loss.
Isn't it similar with ./ers?
there is no universal method of detecting emotions in humans. This impressed Smith, who had independently noticed that years of research in psychology had failed to uncover the Rosetta stone of human emotions.
Violence is the only language that Clippy understands.
I don't want a computer that reacts to my emotions because such a system is likely to be poorly used and to make my user experience less predictable and less useful. I want a system that works the same way every time, or else changes in some particularly predictable way (virus updates).
On a side note, I think Americans are becoming more 'promiscuous' with objects (I'm an American) since they're easily aquired and mass produced. It seems to me that people living a long time ago were more likely to assign emotional value to objects and hand things down in their families.
I have some plates that I got from my grandmother. They're handmade. I'm going to give them to my grandkids if I don't break the things first. We have a table from my grandfather that was made in the Black Forest. It's still in good condition. But I doubt I'm going to start many such traditions because most of the things I own are not unique, not made to last, and not particuarly valuable. The table my parents gave me when they moved is broken now, and I'll be selling my couches when I move or else trashing them. etc.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
My wife and I got a little Furby... its name was Boo Tai... We loved that little Furby!!! But my father-in law got a little rough with it and broke one his ears. I carefully woke my Boo Tai and proceeded to remove its batteries and it replied, "I'm Scared!". Almost broke my heart. I returned little Boo Tai to the store where they wrapped it up with the receipt with tape and put it in a buggy full of other broken merchandise. We got a new one, but we keep it permanently asleep in the closet. We don't dare get close to this one. Can never have another Boo Tai like the first one.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
As long as they don't get back a response from the Rover.....
"I am Nomad"
When you consider the emotional ride these engineers and scientists have been on, a period of adjustment to post-mission life is certainly understandable. From living on a Martian schedule, to the torture of anticipation endured during touch-down, to the milestone discoveries, all of this must be amazing to experience first-hand. Think of all the data analyzed, the nights lying in bed pondering improvements to the software code -- projects such as these become easily become one's life. I just hope the JPL have more interesting projects to look forward to in the future (i.e., propulsion drives, space telescope flotillas, Europa ice-drillers...).
In terms of human discovery, it's a great time to be alive!
No mention of anthropomorphizing machinery is complete without a reference to Masahiro Mori's Uncanny Valley: n. Feelings of unease, fear, or revulsion created by a robot or robotic device that appears to be, but is not quite, human-like.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
we tend to vehemently react against it--witness Microsoft's attempts with the much-loathed Bob and Clippy.
We managed to slip in an anti-"M$" jab even in an article about emotional bonding with fucking space probes.
Bob was over 10 years ago, and Clippy hasn't even been in a default install since the beginning of the decade. A simple click of "Hide" got rid of him way back when. Can we please get over Clippy already? The damn neverending light bulb in OpenOffice is much, much worse...
After all, people don't assign programmers to different tasks--all organizations are one-track minds. When a kernel changelog releases spelling changes in the source code, they could have spent that time improving file I/O! Oh, that's right, people actually work on different things at the same time.
I remember that folks started anthropomorphizing macs as soon as they came out, perhaps in response to the happy mac icon at every startup (or the sad mac if you had problems that day).
The add on Talking Moose was what did it for me though...hard to describe this particular piece of software, but it put an animated moose in the corner of your screen... he would come on and say things (using Macintalk) in response to user actions with menu items and also randomly during idle times. It definitely gave me a connection to System 6, because he never really worked right with system 7. Unlike Clippy or Bob, the moose never really tried to be helpful, other than occasionally reminding you to save your document. But with his Canadian accent and hundreds of phrases, I still miss him to this day.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball(TM)
Spirit
Opportunity
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.
I have had a similar experience with my stereo. It once refused to give back a CD I put into it. I gave it a firm hit on the side, and on the LCD came the text "HELP!". I got my CD back, but I never hit that stereo again. When a thing like that happens you really make a reality check and wonder if you are hallucinating.
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey