Emotional Bonding with Space Probes 250
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?"
My name is Bond (Score:5, Funny)
Re:My name is Bond (Score:3, Funny)
Bob and Clippy (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Bob and Clippy (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bob and Clippy (Score:3, Insightful)
And as easy as it is to blame microsoft, think about what they tried to do. They tried to predict what users wanted to do, and when they were in need of assistance using only the mouse and keyboard to measure the users state. More over they tri
Re:Bob and Clippy (Score:3, Interesting)
Concur.
They gave it their best shot, but they got it wrong. [allowe.com]
But then again, so did many [umn.edu] others [astronautix.com]. Clippy notwithstanding, a day will come when personalized interaction with computers will not only exceed what now obtains between humans and pets, but also what now obtains what now obtains between humans and other humans. When this finally happens, there's gonna be some serio
After all (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Bob and Clippy (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Bob and Clippy (Score:4, Informative)
I ran into a similar (and yet even more unusual) battle this weekend with my wife's PC at home. Its running Windows XP Home, installed with the Windows XP Home SP1 CD. I installed a CD-RW drive so she could burn mix CDs to take with her in the car. After I installed the CD-RW drive, she later complained that "the Internet is down again". After doing some initial troubleshooting I discovered that the TCP/IP stack somehow ate itself-- I tried an ipconfig
This is the first (and only thus far) case I've ever seen where Windows has needed to copy files from a CD of software that I don't even own, especially when I legally purchased the XP Home SP1 CD in the first place.
Re:Bob and Clippy (Score:2, Insightful)
Space probes -- loved.
Cars -- Loved.
Aircraft -- loved.
Computer running windows - loathed.
computer running Bob - loathed.
Computer running Clippy enabled anything - loathed.
Computer running OSX - loved.
I dont think it's clippy or Bob... I think the part of the equation that makes people hate their computers is microsoft products.
If microsoft was running your Car, I'm pretty sure you would hate it.
toungue in cheek guys... let's not get the Microsoft Zealots foaming
Re:Bob and Clippy (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Bob and Clippy (Score:2)
Nice, guys (Score:4, Insightful)
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...
Don't anthropomorphize compters... (Score:5, Funny)
Of course (Score:5, Funny)
My dear departed Furby.... (Score:5, Funny)
my stereo freaked me out once.. (Score:5, Funny)
Bad Karma (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Of course (Score:2)
You'd be surprised with what can be done. With barbiturates, some elementary hypnosis, and properly applied Pavlovian classical conditioning.
Clippy & bob are bad examples. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Clippy & bob are bad examples. (Score:5, Funny)
I wouldn't be happy if my machine kept telling me to be quiet.
Re:Clippy & bob are bad examples. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Agree 100% (Score:5, Insightful)
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'.
Re:Agree 100% (Score:2)
Re:Agree 100% (Score:2, Funny)
That sounds like an interesting project to get involved with. Would allow me to get frustrated, and give me a target for those same frustrations at the same time.
Just imagine...
"It sounds like you are getting frustrated. What can I do to
Re:Agree 100% (Score:2)
That would be a lot more fun than clicking the "[.] Do not ask this again" option.
Re:Agree 100% (Score:2)
I first got it with Windows95 and it's been on every install of Windows I have had since.
Re:Clippy & bob are bad examples. (Score:4, Informative)
The Librarian is librarian at Unseen University (for wizards). After a freak magical accident, among other things, the librarian was transformed into an oranguatan. The librarian decided that he liked being an ape better than being a human, and decided to stay that way. He likes bananas.
Now, personally, I'd perfer to see The Luggage [lspace.org] as the next clippy. It would somehow be fitting....
Re:Clippy & bob are bad examples. (Score:3, Informative)
i think he meant the one from neil stephenson's "Snow Crash"... the librarian was a virtual reality AI assistant inside the metaverse
Re:Clippy & bob are bad examples. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Clippy & bob are bad examples. (Score:2)
Ook.
Re:Clippy & bob are bad examples. (Score:2)
Conan... the Librarian.
Tonight, on U-52.
Re:Clippy & bob are bad examples. (Score:2)
Re:No... (Score:3, Insightful)
I didn't intend to make the point that Clippy is bad or widely hated. I took it on assumption from the story, and was only trying to point out why the haters hate it. I know plenty of people that like Clippy too.
A more on-point contradiction might be that those folks who like Clippy probably wouldn't like something less playfull, like Stephenson's Librarian.
Re:No... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not sure I agree with that point. The librarian is both helpful and respectful without being toadying. Clippy is kind of a dick, and everything about him is annoying. If you turn it all off, you might as well not have a character down there, and just pop up little word balloons for me to read, or throw some text in a sidebar window.
Personally, I don
Again. (Score:4, Interesting)
Give it up Markedroids, we don't need you!
Re:Again. (Score:2)
Re:Again. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Again. (Score:2)
Or should we believe your anonymous Slashdot opinion over focus group tested implementations?
don't walk too close to me... (Score:4, Funny)
Cached Copy (Score:2, Informative)
"We believe that many of our human-to-human communications are implicit -- that is, the more familiar we are with a person, the better we are at understanding them. We want to determine whether a robot can sense a pers
easy one (Score:5, Funny)
and she said, 'Well...I think I'm personally responsible for the loss of a $400 million national asset.
Those women drivers... Sheesh!
You slashdotted my friend! (Score:5, Funny)
Emotional Attachment (Score:5, Funny)
How to write a summary (Score:2, Informative)
Howto write a summary [greenville.edu]
Understandable (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Understandable (Score:3, Insightful)
Emotional Bonding (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
fun with anthropomorphizing (Score:3, Funny)
Re:fun with anthropomorphizing (Score:4, Informative)
HGS1's Spacers List [livejournal.com]
These journals are a blast to read. Check it out!
Re:fun with anthropomorphizing (Score:2)
A matter of attitude... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A matter of attitude... (Score:2, Funny)
You mean automate my wife? *duck*
Re:A matter of attitude... (Score:4, Funny)
I always liked Clippy. I liked clicking on his wire and watching him grind through the machine.
I don't have a lot to do much of the time.
Bonding with Space Probes (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:Bonding with Space Probes (Score:5, Funny)
Nobody ever failed trying to talk their computer into "cluster-a-trois".
Re:Bonding with Space Probes (Score:2)
Actually, I've failed at that. Way back when I didn't know how to configure TCP/IP settings.
Boy, was my machine mad at me.
Excessively melifluous verbiage? (Score:4, Funny)
For Spirit at Gusev Crater, it balked down early in its mission due to computer conniptions.
The writer was so using a thesaurus!
Cute little guy (Score:4, Funny)
Older can be better (Score:4, Insightful)
Hubble (Score:3, Interesting)
Cars, planes, pets, ships, too! (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Cars, planes, pets, ships, too! (Score:2)
It was called "Chunky" and later "Chunkster".
The Rabbit was, in my humble opinion about the coolest lame car in the world. I loved that thing.
Re:Cars, planes, pets, ships, too! (Score:2)
Re:Cars, planes, pets, ships, too! (Score:2)
Loved that Rabbit but I abused it without mercy. I was an idiot when I was kid and knew nothing of maintaining my car. On top of that I had a microscopic budget to live on so even if I had been inclined to take care of it I wouldn't have been able to do it.
Still it ran and ran. Less than a quart of oil in it? It ran. No water in the radiator? It ran. Hole the size of a basketball in the passenger side floorboard? No problem. Missing windows (bu
Re:Cars, planes, pets, ships, too! (Score:2)
Yeah. Who
Re:Cars, planes, pets, ships, too! (Score:2)
Re:Cars, planes, pets, ships, too! (Score:2)
Re:Cars, planes, pets, ships, too! (Score:2)
Re:Cars, planes, pets, ships, too! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Cars, planes, pets, ships, too! (Score:2)
Then again, how many times do managers really get listened to?
Re:Cars, planes, pets, ships, too! (Score:3, Funny)
No, no... that was in English, when they finally nailed the bloody thing after it had sunk half the Royal Navy.
Re:Cars, planes, pets, ships, too! (Score:2)
We'll find that German battleship
That's makin' such a fuss
We've got to sink the Bismarck
'Cause the world depends on us
So hit the decks a-runnin' boys,
Turn those guns around,
We'll find the mighty Bismarck,
And then we'll cut her down
At least Bob was honest: (Score:4, Funny)
we tend to get close to machines (Score:3, Insightful)
Michael Bolton: You and me both, man. That thing is lucky I'm not armed.
Samir: Piece of sh-t.
Re:we tend to get close to machines (Score:2)
Bob and Clippy (Score:2)
John.
Re:Bob and Clippy (Score:3, Funny)
Would you like for me to:
a. Divert your post to a want ad at alt.gay.sex
b. Crash Internet Explorer and offer to send an error report
c. Crash your computer with a GPF and silently erase your harddrive
They should think more about the names (Score:3, Funny)
Well . . . (Score:2)
Re:Well . . . (Score:2)
They didn't mention... (Score:3, Interesting)
...that the scientists in JPL are already in an unhealthy state due to the difference between Earth's and Mars' day (as mentioned here [eurekalert.org]).
This particular disequilibrium of sleep will accentuate the reactions to the loss.
Isn't it similar with ./ers?
relationships with objects (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
If Bob was in fact Cindy, and wore sexy clothing (Score:2, Insightful)
Let's give a computer a personality, and give that personality an animated image. An athletic hot chick, wearing skimpy clothing (although being highly intelligent) with a nice (not overly cheesy "sexy" though) voice. I think it would work, people would become attached. (Of course, that's the opposite of what every company with the power to do this really wants, force peop
Obligatory Star Trek Quote... (Score:3, Funny)
"I am Nomad"
Understandable (Score:3, Insightful)
In terms of human discovery, it's a great time to be alive!
Uncanny Valley (Score:4, Interesting)
News? (Score:2)
the heart of an engineer (Score:2, Funny)
I once found my husband - a software engineer - pondering the Mars Rovers after a scotch. He apologized for getting emotional, but I empathized.
"They are out there, so far away from Earth, far from the people who care about them. Alone. And they will probably never come back."
Tell me that doesn't make you a little misty-eyed!
To cheer him up, I added, "But this is what they were built for! Those little Rovers are having the time of their lives, riding over boulders and exploring craters..."
An enginee
The Talking Moose (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:The Talking Moose (Score:4, Informative)
*bow, bow* *snuggles the google bunny*
Spirit and Opportunity have Live Journals. (Score:5, Informative)
Opportunity [livejournal.com]
I donno.. (Score:2)
So what's new? (Score:2)
A gamer who still has the Atari 2600 and speaks about it as a person.
For some people, the more attention, care, and money put into something, the greater the emotional investment - such that a failure or death "hurts".
Control room emotions are surprisingly high... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
It's when we invest a piece of ourselves. (Score:3, Insightful)
I was in the submarine service, reported to a boat in new construction, road her down the ways, watched her go from a nearly empty tube (forward of the reactor compartment) to a fully functioning warship. I was on watch during initial criticality, during her first dive, her first surface. I KNEW her, as only the crew of a new vessel can know. I knew the people who built her, who tested her, and (of course) who operated her.
She will be decommissioned this summer. I'll go. It will be a sad time, to watch the life of a vessel end. She's the last of her kind.
I'm sure the designers and mission planners and researchers will feel much the same when Spirit and Opportunity go silent. They SHOULD - they earned the caring.
I have never felt that way about any computer I have ever owned. And definately NOT about a piece of software.
Why comparison to cars and other things are wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
What is happening here is that a designers are getting attached to their babies. Naming something you just purchased and purhaps made some relatively minor modifications to (minor in comparison to the overall original design effort) is not comparable.
I can say from experience that the emotional investment in the success of a project that you've worked say, 90 hours a week for 2 years solid, on is HUGE!!! In my case, my baby didn't fail but, rather, had its feet ripped out from under it before it was ever given a chance. It happened in the early '90s and I still carry hatred for the high level official that did the unjustified deed.
Even at 40 hours of concentrated effort a week, you are almost certainly spending more time paying focused attention to your creation than almost anyone ever pays to any member of their family. Your investment in your job in almost every measure is the biggest investment you make in your life. Next time you hear someone say something like "he put his heart and soul into _______", know that it has very real meaning behind it and feel compassion if whatever "it" is failed.
Re:Dont... (Score:3, Funny)
"where is the other camera"... unless its on the OTHER rover..... but why would.... herkuplllllgggggggg
*BRAIN PANIC - PERSONALITY DUMPED*
Re:So male or female? (Score:2)
Re:I have the same feelings at work (Score:2)