Dog move over, gadgets are mans new best friend

Robots can be faster, smarter, stronger, more resilient. But will human beings ever truly accept robots into their lives like a loved one or even a pet? When you look at our attachment to our gadgets it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to imagine that the bond we share with our phones is akin to a loyal companion, a companion which is far more handier, easier to manage and cheaper to feed than a dog. Unless your dog is like my friend's dog Jet, who can hunt truffles, a dog is essentially another tennant in your household which can't pay rent. Yet for some reason the attachment one has to a loved pet will far exceed the attachment to a phone.

Your new smartphone however is a gateway to a much wider world. At your fingertips you can have access to the largest library of data that mankind has ever witnessed, you can contact friends and associates further than anyone can shout to even beyond the curvature of the Earth and better yet, you don't even need to deal with the lag caused by the speed of sound travelling through a medium. You can play games, watch videos, listen to music and even work on these devices. The maintenance of such a handy companion? Just needs a charge on occasion. I don't even need to take it for a walk!

Yet, call me crazy (but more likely others), pets still have their appeal on people. Why is that though? I spoke to a few friends and the winning argument is that their "cutesy wutesy". Now...before I completely disown my friends on account of their gooeyness, let's look into this for a second. If cats and dogs have somehow been able to invade our homes, eat our food, take up our shelter and have us steward for them, then surely they're doing something right? Is being "cutesy wutesy" the key? If it works for pets, can it work for robots?

Opening case: The Tamagotchi, since 1996 has sold over 70,000,000 units. 70 MILLION! For a small device with a few rubber buttons and a monotone LCD screen, that's fairly impressive. I confess even I had one and it was glorious! I paid more attention to it than the family fishes! I was pretty bummed when it ran out of batteries but I think the impact was lightened when I collected my 150th/150 Pokemon.

In a fantastic "Robot/People" Art piece, Kacie Kinzer designed the "Tweenbot" (Pictured above). With a few charming touches that made it appear incredibly cute, cheerful and vulnerable, the Tweenbots were able to get from one end of New York city's Central Park to the other. With no reliance on AI, these robots which progressed at a constant and linear direction when left to their own devices, were able to complete their odyssey relying on "Ahh" power. That is the compassion that passer bys had to this barely animate object with a flag sticking out asking for help, with no expectation of a reward. All it had was a smily face drawn on it and immediately we are drawn in! At it's non-existent projected will, passer bys aided the little Tweenbot to it's destination. Even when I look at the tweenbots now I just think "Man that thing's just so cute". I DO feel compassion for it! I want the little thing to get to its destination. I don't know why and a part of me really doesn't care, I just feel there's an overwhelming satisfaction to be gained. I think Pixar definitely capitalised on this when they created Wall-E. A film where for 3/4 of it there's no dialogue.

Being cute just might be the key to have our devices/robots be invited into our everyday lives as a treasured companion. Ultimately one day I would want a dog robot designed to the image of Gromit who could build inventions for me. The best of both worlds!

Link Dump:
http://www.tweenbots.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagotchi
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/disney/walle/trailer_large.html