I created the "Produce
Consume Robot" as a scale model prototype of a cybernetic
organism to succeed humans as the dominant species of earth
and beyond. His functions, including parroting "produce...
consume..." ad infinitum and performing repetitive menial
motions, have been distilled from otherwise frivolous human
behaviors to support maximal expansion of The Economy. Until
mass-production is fully operative, the prototype
Produce Consume Robot will stand as a mascot for our society
and a role model for our children.
Lessons Learned:
In the process of
making the Produce Consume Robot I learned some interesting
lessons for creating robots to succeed us.
Mind/Body Separation
It
quickly became clear that it was necessary to create a mind/body
separation. If the brain and body were powered from
the same source, surges in the power consumption of the body
would reset the brain, causing the body to flail out of
control and break off the arms.
The Source of
Free Will
The Produce Consume Robot was intended to be entirely
deterministic, parroting exactly what he has heard while
moving about. However, observation revealed that when the body
is set in motion, the robot develops what I heretofore term
"free will". Instead of repeating commands, he turns it into a
sample for a free expression jam. I have yet to fully
determine what the source of free will is, but my best guess
would be an induction between the body and the mind circuitry
(Maybe the soul?).
Free Will Leads to
Over-Consumption The
induction of free will that accompanies attaching the mind to the body
leads to an increased expression of consumption behavior. This
over-consumption slowly drains the mind power until the body flails
out of control and breaks off the arms.
Federal Regulation Prevents
Catastrophe I discovered it was possible to prevent this
catastrophic breakdown with a fail-safe switch I've termed "federal
regulation", which prevents the twisting of the body from
overextending beyond the critical point in its revolution.
I modeled the
Produce Consume Robot as closely as possible to its human counterpart,
the Produce Consume Human. Sensory feedback signals from the periphery
(SPDT momentary pushbutton switches) terminate in the
sensory-motor
cortex (NAND gates wired to flip-flop). The sensory-motor cortex
projects to the posterior
cerebellar cortices (DPDT relays), which
control the direction of limb/torso motor output. A frontal timing
circuit (tlc555) controls the flashing of the eyes and the timing of
speech produced from the left hemisphere
Broca-Wernicke's chip
(extracted from a Radioshack picture frame recorder). Sensory-motor
connections between the body and the mind are predominantly connected
via a central signaling pathway resembling the human
spinal cord that
runs down the midline of the back.
