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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.  
 
  In the process of making the Produce Consume Robot I learned some interesting lessons for creating robots to succeed us. For example, it 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.
 
Furthermore, the Produce Consume Robot was originally intended to be entirely deterministic. He would listen to his master and, on command, he would repeat back exactly what he heard and move about. However, by some manner my robot developed what I heretofore term "free will". Instead of parroting what he hears, he takes what he hears and turns it into a sample for a free expression jam. Further observation revealed that it only happens when he is moving (possibly limited attentional resources for multitasking). 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?

 
 
 

 

 

 
Additionally, I found the induction of free will that accompanied attaching the mind to the body led to an increased expression of consumption behavior that slowly drained the mind power until the body flailed out of control and broke off the arms. I discovered it was possible to prevent this catastrophic breakdown with a fail-safe switch I've termed "federal regulation" that 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.
 

 
produceconsumerobot