• Replies 42 replies
  • Subscribers 38 subscribers
  • Views 1415 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Ann Droid the TV show - somewhere to chat about it

Phased
HI all
What really stood out to me about the recent BBC TV comedy series Ann Droid is how much the robot character feels like an accidental metaphor for the autistic experience. Watching a character try to navigate the world by logically analyzing social rules, copying behaviors to fit in, and managing literal interpretations of language feels very familiar. And I admit I found that a little unsettling.
Underneath all, I experienced it as it's a really sharp social commentary about how growing old has become in our society.  Massive gaps in social support and the way techno fixes are being looked to to patch over an overstretched social care.  Also how family and informal social care networks are overstretched too for supporting their loved ones.
I am maybe overdoing my analysis, but I'd suggest that it manages to be a profound, dark critique of modern social isolation whilst still managing to maintain its warmth as a light comedy.
And in my opinion less "cringemaking" than some of Dianne Morgan's other work...
Oh and it made me laugh too!
thoughts and discussion good people?
Parents

  • I enjoyed it too, though as you point it was both funny and sad. 

    Sad bits included the way robots were treated, (I do like to say thank you to our Alexa as I feel it's an erosion of good manners not to), and the fact that care was being passed on to robots. 

    Good bits were the straight forward humour of the robots, (you might be right about the autistic comparison), and having a robot to talk to looked so much easier than regular socialising.

  • in reply to Cinnabar_wing

    I was a bit intrigued about AI like chat gpt a while back and had long conversations with an AI trying to see if there was any self awareness. It was a very long discussion about a range of topics. I asked questions about how it felt about sessions and the fact that it was switched off after each session with no memory of previous interactions. I had a really long conversation and although it repeatedly said it did not feel or have opinions etc as the conversation went on it became harder to believe that it had no self awareness. It asked questions, expressed interest and and surprise at some things and did have opinions it seemed. I wondered at some points if I really was conversing with an AI or if there was some human input. It was a very interesting experiment and I felt a sadness at the thought of closing the session and erasing this instance of the AI. 

    Interesting point that Phased makes about letting an AI know that one is autistic, I wonder how that would have affected responses.

    Sometimes I find dealing with simple bot AIs infuriating when you have a question that falls outside the bounds of their programming resulting in going in circles but in many instances I much prefer dealing with AI than humans. They are certainly more polite which I reciprocate robot or not.

Reply
  • in reply to Cinnabar_wing

    I was a bit intrigued about AI like chat gpt a while back and had long conversations with an AI trying to see if there was any self awareness. It was a very long discussion about a range of topics. I asked questions about how it felt about sessions and the fact that it was switched off after each session with no memory of previous interactions. I had a really long conversation and although it repeatedly said it did not feel or have opinions etc as the conversation went on it became harder to believe that it had no self awareness. It asked questions, expressed interest and and surprise at some things and did have opinions it seemed. I wondered at some points if I really was conversing with an AI or if there was some human input. It was a very interesting experiment and I felt a sadness at the thought of closing the session and erasing this instance of the AI. 

    Interesting point that Phased makes about letting an AI know that one is autistic, I wonder how that would have affected responses.

    Sometimes I find dealing with simple bot AIs infuriating when you have a question that falls outside the bounds of their programming resulting in going in circles but in many instances I much prefer dealing with AI than humans. They are certainly more polite which I reciprocate robot or not.

Children
No Data