With C3PO apparently losing its will to communicate as a human-cyborg public relations expert, I count on R2D2 to keep me up to speed on his life and passions. (R2D2 is a male robot, right?)
At least R2D2 tries to speak in first person because that’s how people speak. I this, I that. It doesn’t matter to me that his speech is in beeps and dings because he’s trying.
Even NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation & Sensing Satellite and the Cassini spacecraft cruising around Saturn try to speak like people — and write replies to people who ask them questions.
I can’t say the same for other robots in the twittersphere whose daily existence involves automatic broadcasts of press releases and other information fed to their feeds from external sources.
The White House, to hypostasize the institution, is a robot. Every outgoing message looks like this:
The Northwest Florida Daily News is also a robot, using a similar format that points pawns of people to a remote item of social media:
Even people are acting like robots. Try this on for size:
U.S. Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) not only talks like a robot but he talks about himself in third person! This is when C3PO would come in handy…
Ed Kohler of Technology Evangelist recently suggested that the most followed Twitter feeds broadcasted the most amount of robotic jargon. His rationale is people seek out quality and content with robots they can’t find with human peers.
Chris Brogan is one of those people, as someone who used to oppose robots but now embraces them if he finds value in their message.
Maybe people like Ed and Chris prefer receiving news and other content from automatons.
Not me, which is why I do not advocate you follow the advice to get 1000 followers on Twitter. You can follow the advice if you want, but you’ll be following robots.
I have nothing against building robots, though, which can be very helpful cleaning rooms and pouring coffee. Here’s a guide to build a Twitter robot slave and here’s a different guide to build a Twitter talking robot.
What’s next? Human-robot marriage?
As the web gets more and more social, I prefer to read a message from a person, or in the case of R2D2 and NASA satellites, a robot trying to be like a person.
Robots can follow me all they want but until the day comes when a robot can speak through artificial intelligence and not with human innovation, I won’t befriend one. Other than R2D2 and higher lifeforms like he.
Photo credit: hey skinny
Related posts:
- What is the Cost of Online Friends?
- Show Me the Money or Twitter Will Fail
- Want to Meet My First 221 Twitter Friends?
Comments:
Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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{ 7 comments }
good post. I agree to watch myself around robots and technology. If we’re not careful they just might take over the world. those sci-fi movies may not be oh-so fictional.
I so agree with you… On the web there are robots everywhere, and they are not always telling their names. For example, I do consider google as a robot. It is even the robot of the web…
Billy: Do you think it’s coincidence cellular flip phones look eerily like a Star Trek communicator or that many night clubs reminisce the bar where Luke met Han?
Stetoscope: So is your name Stetoscope? If not, why not write a comment with a human name?
Ari, I don’t think it’s quite accurate to describe the people who write headlines for CNN as robots or automatons.
Ed: I don’t know who is writing headlines for CNN because I don’t see their personality shine though. That’s my point.
I follow people on twitter who point me to worthy URLs, usually with a reason to click the link. And each tweet shows a different side of the person. I can’t say that for the robots.
If CNN wants me to treat them seriously on Twitter, their human writers should inject some emotion or add a smiley face or such. Else, I’d rather visit cnn.com directly.
Also, here is a shining example of a robot interjecting personality and asking me if I want to click their link.
From the Red Cross.
I think CNN’s feed is so popular because people know what to expect. It’s consistently valuable. Providing editorial to straight headlines would likely detract from the value.
The Red Cross is an interesting example. Personally, I don’t think the Red Cross has figured out how they want to use the service since they’re putting a combination of press releases, RC news, and weather updates on the same Twitter account. Who is their audience? If it’s press, they’re putting non-press relevant content on the feed. If it’s the general public who may be at risk, don’t both with the press releases.
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