Shopping Robot
By Ryan Oakley. Filed in robots |
The dehumanizing forces of late capitalism march on.
Just in case the malls weren’t yet full of enough robots, Tmusk has created a robot shopper, controlled by cell phone. From the misery of home, you can look through its eyes as it peruses the shoe selection, tell it where to go to and buy different items. I’m not sure how it pays. Some sort of credit card?
You know, the same device that can be used on the internet.
I’m not sure if this robot will catch on. People love to shop and doing so may be different via machine. Part of the fun is the social element. It’s possible for a machine to replicate that (Facebook) or even improve upon it (Facebook) but I’m not sure if this particular machine does that. And just how does it try on shoes?
This robot is supposed to be for the elderly and handicapped who can’t leave their house. Perhaps Tmusk’s marketing is based on creating a sort of Von Neumann Catastrophe.
Think about it — if you need a robot shopper because you’re stuck at home, don’t you need a robot shopper to buy that robot shopper? And then a robot shopper to buy that robot shopper? And so forth. And so on. If we’re not careful, we could quickly be overrun by robot shoppers buying robot shoppers.
Or we could go to the store or ebay.
Although Ryan Oakley began his career as a simple rake (drunk) he has since become Toronto’s most renowned flaneur (no car) and notorious dandy (overdresses). A misanthropic composer of psycho-geographical fictions (bad science fiction), he is also a server of food, a tender of bar and a washer of dishes. While performing all these functions with efficiency and elegance (disdain and malice), he somehow finds the time to publicly criticize friends, strangers and cultural crap. He's a bit of a dick.
