Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Destroy! Kill! How's your day?




Call me a luddite.

The Luddites were a social movement of 19th-century English textile artisans who protested – often by destroying mechanized looms – against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their way of life. The movement was named after General Ned Ludd or King Ludd, a mythical figure who, like Robin Hood, was reputed to live in Sherwood Forest.[1] 
Thank you, Wikipedia.

In this particular circumstance I am slightly ludditish. I don’t think I want this bit of technology to work.
I, introduce you to Scary Singing Robot Head




Creepy! 
Do you really want that thing asking you, "How many in your party?...It will be just a few minutes longer till a table frees up. Did you bring a piece of music for me to sing?"

I wish my luddite feeling stopped there.
What do you think about this $8,000 alternative to Skype?





Why does the thing look like Casper the Friendly Ghost, you ask?
I have no idea!
They actually did studies to make sure that the elderly, whom it is designed for, will like the “soft and pleasant” body.
Somebody's been watching too much Cocoon.
Why not just buy Grandpa a laptop?


So my question to you is:
Wanna join my Luddite movement?
We’ll just destroy the creepy animatronic humanoids.

If only one of these could survive our attack on all-things-creepy-and-inanimate-but-look-animate then which one would you vote for?



25 comments:

  1. I think they're both awful but if one had to survive it would be Grandpa's creepy Casper. No matter how creepy that thing is, it doesn't come close to the ick factor of being spoken to by a floating head :-)

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  2. First the Kindle now this? When will the madness end? They need to give the singing hostess a new haircut, and the bald skype baby is freaking me out with his nubby arms! What are they thinking?

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  3. Wouldn't grandparents want to see their actual grandchildren's faces? Just sayin'.

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  4. Yes - I want to join your movement. These things are creeping me out. I think I will officially have nightmares now. *shiver*

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  5. This totally creeped me out. Where's the sign up sheet?

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  6. My fiance and I just had a discussion on stuff like this last night! Supposedly we'll all be cyborgs in 2029, which is unsettling to say the least. Is there a way we could start a petition to tell scientists to back the eff away from AI technology? Ick.

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  7. The first one reminds me of a barbie styling head gone wrong. I've never trusted those things.

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  8. My two-year-old freaked when he saw the creepy white head. Weirdest thing I've seen in a long time!

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  9. Officially creeped out here. And the hanging body thing? Sort of looked like a sperm with a face. Disturbing.

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  10. I'm so freaked out! I heard about that companinn for the elderly but didn't see a picture till now.

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  11. ahhh! scary! new follower and fellow campaigners. we're in your group! christy

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  12. Huh??? That was very disturbing to say the least. iRobot here we come I guess. If I had to choose one of those I would pick to get rid of the weird casper sperm thing. That is just too much for me.

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  13. I know in some schools in Japan they are already trialing robot teachers to see if they have the same results...

    I'm all for technology, but replacing people in jobs such as teaching or receptionists I'm quite wary about. There's a reason why, even in the 60's and 70's there were Sci-Fi books written with criticisms of incorporating robots into our lives.

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  14. I'm voting for neither of those creepy things to survive, so I say we start the movement now and take the evil AI by storm. Before they take us down.

    And the day schools start employing robot teachers will be the day my kids are homeschooled.

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  15. Okay, you creeped me out. I'll join, but I have trouble following
    rules ...

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  16. Do I have to vote? They both kind of freak me out. I won't lie. ;)

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  17. Yiiiiick!!! They both freak me out, so I'll happily join your Luddite campaign to destroy them... If one has to survive, I'll go with the talking Casper thing!

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  18. Granted these are creepy, but they just need to be developed further to make them less so. If we reject these, we may never have a robotic butler who will cook, clean, and do laundry for us.

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  19. Ray Bradbury pegged this 50 years ago. And it didn't end well in ANY of his stories. (Robotic Grandma)

    Hey Shelly, I'm in one of your Crusader groups. Just saying Hi. *waves*

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  20. Oh yeah, that's creepy. It looks like an alien. Is a laptop too complicated to use or something?? Too hilarious.

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