Althouse: Robo, the robot hobo.

July 23, 2016

Robo, the robot hobo.

"It’s part performance art, part social experiment, as people slowly start to realize that Dirk isn’t an actual human. But dressing it up as a homeless person serves as convincing camouflage for the robot, and helps temporarily overcome the uncanny valley that usually gives humanoid robots away."

9 comments:

Anonymous said...: The robot’s not autonomous, though. Its creator, Fred Abels, hides nearby, usually among the crowd of people that Dirk draws, and controls the robot like a puppet. That allows the bot to realistically interact with people, looking and nodding in their direction, and then playing an organ when someone gives it money.

so it's not a robot, but rather an anthropomorphic metal puppet without strings; 7/23/16, 5:32 PM
YoungHegelian said...: Does it ask me for "a dollah, any spare change ya got to charge-up mah batteries"?

Or, instead of a case of Mad Dog 20/20, would it prefer a case of Quaker State?; 7/23/16, 5:47 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Shouldn't be called a robot(nik), since it is doing no work.
(Wait. There's a checkbox below for me to certify I'm not a robot(nik)? Does that mean I'm also doing no work? Damn. Caught again.); 7/23/16, 5:53 PM
Quaestor said...: A refrigerator is more of a robot than this clinking clanking collection of collisionous junk!; 7/23/16, 6:15 PM
rhhardin said...: Robots do better as psychologists than as homeless people.

Nonsensical conversation continuations are accepted from the former.; 7/23/16, 6:46 PM
Quaestor said...: So it's not a robot, but rather an anthropomorphic metal puppet without strings.

Althouse needs an "art bullshit" tag for pretentious crap like this.

Disney's been doing this stuff for decades, yet their animatronics are despised as mere tourist attractions. Why isn't Lucky the Dinosaur honored as pioneering performance art?; 7/23/16, 6:49 PM
jg said...: mean-spirited and lame.

"the easiest kind of person to imitate is one of those deranged homeless people. they may as well be automatons"; 7/23/16, 9:00 PM
mikee said...: Downtown Baltimore had installations of several lifesize, realistic bronze statues decades ago. They scared the crap out of my kids several times.

No, I have no interpretation of this phenomenon, I simply report it for your consideration.; 7/24/16, 2:02 PM
Just_Mike_S said...: In the Year 2525...; 7/25/16, 12:14 PM