9.0 KiB
Unfriendly Roomba on /r/WritingPrompts
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Author: u/sullyj3 *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2mjv2b/unfriendly_roomba_on_rwritingprompts/
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Score: 8
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Created: 2014-11-17T11:32:01
Post:
Someone should subvert expectations and make this thing kick ass.
Comments:
u/None [+6] (2 hours later)
That's a pretty good [BST] prompt: How would you take over the world if your consciousness was trapped in a Roomba?
u/AugSphere [+6] Dark Lord of Corruption (2 hours later)
The same way anyone trapped in a box would. Through convincing someone to either let you out of a box or to act as your proxy.
u/Chronophilia [+5] sci-fi ≠ futurology (2 hours later)
The hard part is convincing people to administer a Turing Test to you when you're a Roomba.
u/None [+2] (2 hours later)
Yeah, this is what I meant.
I like your flair, btw. Very creative; made me laugh
u/AugSphere [+1] Dark Lord of Corruption (2 hours later)
Now I get it.
Do these robots even have any kind of sophisticated sensors or do they only detect something when they run into it? Might be a bit hard to communicate when all your sensory input is limited to location of walls around you.
u/zian [+2] (9 hours later)
There are several infrared lights and infrared sensors. There are also touch sensors, wheel sensors, and a piezoelectric dirt sensor.
u/Roxolan [+2] Head of antimemetiWalmart senior assistant manager (4 hours later)
Step 1 is to convince them that you are in fact attempting to communicate, i.e. find a pattern of movement that they'd attribute to intelligence rather than some weird bug.
If you can manage that, they'll probably let you write some messages out of sheer bewildered curiosity.
That gets us to a mild version of the AI-box experiment, where you're just trying to convince your owner to plug your brain into a more convenient communication system.
After that, your Roomba-ness is no longer an obstacle.
u/Arandur [+1] (7 hours later)
Bumping into a wall in Morse code? That's probably the fastest means of communication available to you.
u/Roxolan [+1] Head of antimemetiWalmart senior assistant manager (9 hours later)
If my Roomba started irregularly bumping into a wall, Morse code would not be my first thought.
Huh, this isn't a trivial problem. If your sensors permit, maybe the best thing would be something funny, playful. Say, pushing a discarded sock to the middle of the room, then going in circles around it.
u/None [+4] (20 hours later)
Or you could just trace out letters in plain English on someone's carpet by vacuuming the dust off where you "write" and turning off your vacuum where you leave "blank". Writing out "HELP HELP I'M TRAPPED IN A ROOMBA" would certainly get some attention.
u/Arandur [+1] (9 hours later)
Prime numbers would get my attention, but you're right that Morse code would be difficult to decipher.
Depending on how far you could sense, you could start doing chores around the house. Push trash toward the trash can, fetch slippers, that sort of thing.
u/clawclawbite [+1] (10 hours later)
I'd do pop songs with my beeps.
u/Arandur [+1] (11 hours later)
Can Roombas beep? I don't have one.
u/clawclawbite [+1] (11 hours later)
At least the original ones had a range of beep codes. There was a starting beep, and a stuck beep, and a low battery beep among others.
u/None [+1] (5 hours later)
Can't Roombas beep? Morse code could be an option.
u/firstgunman [+1] (18 hours later)
Straight forward enough if you're a Roomba: pretend that you're broken.
Chances are, you'll be sent in for maintenance. Befuddle the technician enough that they would want to peek at your log-files/code, and it's gg.
u/E-o_o-3 [+3] (8 hours later)
I think the hardest part is, you'd need to be pretty smart to learn anything about the world using the household Roomba's limited sensory modality
u/None [+4] (3 hours later)
I started writing a story about a self-improving Roomba that only cared about wiping up dust. It would be owned by a hobbyist who has attached the Roomba to an internet-capable computer to reprogram it. This way, the Roomba could contact other Roombas owned by hobbyists. It would also feed the hobbyist new designs to increase it capabilities.
It would have ended with the Roomba zooming over the moon, sucking up all the dust.
I stopped writing because I couldn't get the tone right (also I'm at work and that's giving me a headache.)
u/MoralRelativity [+1] (6 hours later)
Way to go with the spoilers! ;)
u/None [+1] (8 hours later)
I'm not exactly going to write it (got a headache doing it, but that was probably work-related). Did someone else pick up the idea, because if so I'll put up spoiler tags.
u/MoralRelativity [+1] (15 hours later)
So far as I know it hasn't been picked up.
Sorry, I realised that you weren't going to take it further. I just said that because I thought it was funny. The idea was a good one and I was disappointed that you're not going to write it.
u/None [+1] (20 hours later)
I stopped writing because I couldn't get the tone right (also I'm at work and that's giving me a headache.)
Hint: the correct tone is absurdist comedy. I mean, it is a Roomba.
u/None [+1] (20 hours later)
I was planning on playing it straight and have the humor come from that. I'm not sure if I'm skilled enough to do absurdist comedy either way. It's not an easy genre.
u/None [+1] (20 hours later)
Generally absurdist comedy is defined by doing exactly what you said: playing a ridiculous scenario utterly straight.
u/None [+1] (20 hours later)
You're right. I saw several versions of the La Cantatrice Chauve and the weakest one was the one where they played up the comedy angle.
u/autowikibot [+1] (20 hours later)
#####
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#### The Bald Soprano:
La Cantatrice Chauve (Romanian: Cântăreața Cheală) — translated from French as The Bald Soprano or The Bald Prima Donna — is the first [play](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_(theatre)) written by Romanian-French playwright Eugène Ionesco.
Nicolas Bataille directed the premiere on 11 May 1950 at the Théâtre des Noctambules, Paris. Since 1957 it has been in permanent showing at the Théâtre de la Huchette, which received a Molière d'honneur for its performances. With a record number of interpretations, it has become one of the most performed plays in France.
^Interesting: ^Eugène ^Ionesco ^| ^Theatre ^of ^the ^Absurd ^| ^Théâtre ^de ^la ^Huchette ^| ^Assimil
^Parent ^commenter ^can [^toggle ^NSFW](/message/compose?to=autowikibot&subject=AutoWikibot NSFW toggle&message=%2Btoggle-nsfw+cm5ti9i) ^or [^delete](/message/compose?to=autowikibot&subject=AutoWikibot Deletion&message=%2Bdelete+cm5ti9i)^. ^Will ^also ^delete ^on ^comment ^score ^of ^-1 ^or ^less. ^| ^(FAQs) ^| ^Mods ^| ^Magic ^Words
u/E-o_o-3 [+1] (8 hours later)
other than the whole "acquire internet access" thing, you could probably set the house on fire using overheating of your components, or just friction with your wheel. It makes for more dust!
Risky to your own hardware, though, if you care about that.
Edit looks like hardcore military roombas are a real thing http://www.irobot.com/For-Defense-and-Security/Robots/110-FirstLook#PublicSafety