Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

"Not A Robot"

I was endlessly amused by the ad copy for this slick tee (and I must say that the cocolicious brown color scheme and retro-Galactica type-face would make this an irresistable purchase for me if it weren't for the fact that I'm pushing forty now and starting to feel weird about my default sartorial instincts -- a problem I think of as the "Ryan Seacrest Dilemma"):
The way android technology is progressing, there's just no telling, at a glance, who's a human, and who's a bloodthirsty manbot disguised as a soft, spongy meatbag bent on on infiltrating our ranks and destroying us from within. But until there's a reliable robot detector we can use to sniff out the phonies you can declare your humanity by other means. Just don't count on anyone to believe you.

So, sure, the ad copy mobilizes the tired disasterbatory robot-army singularitarian runaway scenario, and it seems to mistakenly presume that our "humanity," such as it is, is more a function of the hardware on which we happen to be implemented than our capacities for and practices of kindness and creativity... but, well, what the hell, the design is fun and the copy is funny, so there ya go.

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