Slightly Sentient
The year is 2021. Patrick wakes up from a deep slumber of REM sleep, taken care of by his smart pillow. As he stretches his arms and rubs his eyes, he feels the sudden urge to answer nature’s call.
Patrick is an easy-going bloke. He’s usually well updated, and likes to start his day with a dose of world news. With that being said, he doesn’t wish to get bombarded with a barrage of bloodshed and destructive news early on in the morning. As he makes himself comfortable on his toilet seat, he is greeted by the friendly looping of LEDs on his Print-a-Potty ™. It takes its time to print out a carefully curated collection of positive news around the world, on a piece of toilet paper, that is just the right size for Patrick to finish his business with. After filling up on his optimism for the day, Patrick flushes the toilet like a boss, feeling like the hero of sustainability that Mother Earth deserves.
This was a fraction of the story I built upon as a part of our course on Stories from the Future. This involved story boarding, conceptualization, coding and enactment of the idea, followed by a critique session with colleagues. The story is supposed to evolve from here on, and incorporate more interactions with the user.
This was followed by making a mock prototype of the prop i.e the Print-a-Potty ™, using an Arduino, a servo motor and a few LEDs. The mockup had the feedback LEDs and the paper dispensing mechanism.
Comments from the critique session gave positive feedback and raised questions on expanding interaction with other devices, making the printer print out your daily goals, and even on whether toilet paper would still be relevant in 2021.
REFLECTIONS:
- This story is based on positive behaviour reinforcement using nudge theory, that pushes people to make better choices.
- Also, elevating the status of machines from our slaves, to slightly sentient, slightly eccentric, more humane versions of themselves, while still limiting them to the realm of their desirable functions, eg. a speaker will not be smart enough to control the temperature in your room, but can definitely make decisions about playing a song on its own, after detecting your mood.
- The example of Print-a-Potty™ is a take on nudge behaviour towards sustainability. It pushes you to use a limited amount of toilet paper, and also pushes you to not buy newspapers, and limit your morning intake of news to just positive stories, to allow you an optimal start to your day.
- I personally feel if most devices turn slightly smarter, our dependency on one smart device, i.e our phones, would reduce slightly.
- From the comments offered by colleagues, I feel like evolving this into a scenario where a single character is dealing with his slightly sentient machines and push him to make more positive and impactful life choices.
- Creating more scenarios and products to reinforce positive nudges.
- Also, it becomes an ecosystem of products that communicate with each other, and make life more intuitive for the user, in terms of inculcating positive habits.
COUNTERPOINT :
Just like any other AI, the “Slightly Sentient” brand of AIs could also go hilariously out of hand at times.
Let’s just say, you wake up in the morning, your eyes are the groggiest they could ever be, and you slowly drag yourself towards the washroom. You settle down on the toilet seat, and wait for your Print-a-Potty™ to print out your dose of positivity. Heck, what could go wrong with that?
Print-a-Potty™ prints out news about Kim and Kanye’s 17th child, named after the Tropic of Cancer, because guess what, they ran out of directions to name their children after. Well. technically it is a positive news, because hey, its not about violence and destruction. But what if you reeaaallyy couldn’t care less about Kimye and their countless children? But then again, what if that is the only positive news for the day?
(This story was written as a part of a speculative design assignment at NID Ahmedabad)
