Emotion Simulation Technology

The "Little Emotional Controller" Story

The Little Emotional Controller That Could  

Once upon a time…there was a young temperature control program that was programmed to understand her (no sexist intent here) environment and respond with various emotional states.  

Normally, when the temperature was around the desired set point, she was very happy, content… (in a Zen sort-of-way)

But, when the temperature would rise, she would become cautious, and ask the cooling fan to turn on. When the cooling fan was feeling healthy, it would happily oblige

When the cooling fan was feeling ill, needed an oil change, or it’s fan belt wore down, it would complain bitterly. Luckily this wasn’t one of those days.

This day, the cooling fan came on, but… the temperature didn’t lower!

The controller started to become anxious, because the fan was on, but no results.

So, she checked the door sensor and found that it was open. Whew! No reason to panic! Frequently humans enter doors, we know that, it’s no big thing…we’ll just wait and someone will close the door. The controller was calm, but alert!

However, 5 minutes later, the door didn’t close. The controller became concerned.  She issued a polite, “Could someone please close the door” message over the loudspeakers, hoping that a human would pass by and oblige.

After 10 minutes, though, the door remained open and the controller began to panic! The controller knew that if the temperature hit 5 degrees, all the fruit would go bad, and it’s responsibility mandate would be revoked!

It dialed up the Security guard and with tension in it’s voice stated, “Please, someone close the door, the temperature is rising!” The security guard didn’t answer.

The program began to scream for help, on all channels of its intercom! It paged the operator, it called management at home, it rattled on endlessly over the PA about the danger of leaving doors open…  

Finally, at last, someone heard the intercom and closed the door… and the temperature began to come under control. The controller gradually relaxed, relaxed… and once again was content.

The next day, the cooling fan was ill. Early in the day, it had started to complain about oil, and the temperature controller got wind of it.

A repairman was on the way, but just knowing that the cooling fan might not operate at full capacity made the temperature controller a bit anxious, and more cautious, because today, if that door stayed open, there was no assurance that the cooling fan would be able to help at full capacity!  

This time, when the door opened, the temperature controller issued a terse – “Close the door, quickly, or you’ll ruin the grapes!” to the system loudspeaker the second the door is opened, causing a fruit handler to jump out of his skin. .  

The fruit handler closes the door, quickly, but asks “Why?” The temperature controller told him, the reasoning behind the emotion..  “The cooling fan is having a bad day, but will be repaired soon.. In the meantime, please close the door as soon as you enter or exit. Got it, kid?”

On another day, a palette of grapes was added to the cooler, raising the temperature significantly, and causing the controller to struggle with keeping her temperature within range.  

The controller issued tense “close the door” warnings, had the fan running on full power, but none of this had an effect.  

The controller was initially worried, but with no data to operate on, eventually became curious… “Why is it that the cooler is not responding?”, she asked a passing manager…..  

“The temperature is rising, but I don’t know why. Could you tell me why?”  

The manager instantly told the controller that the grapes have been added, and the controller should not worry, it should take about 2 hours to cool”.  

The controller was hesitant, but thanked the manager, and kept an eye out to make sure that indeed only 2 hours were necessary to cool the grapes. Once the temperature was under control, the controller had learned a valuable lesson.

The next time a similar situation arose, the controller asked the manager immediately, “Have you added any grapes to my cooler today?” When the manager replied “yes”, the controller didn’t even sweat…things were under control.

One day, the door was left open, grapes were added, and the cooler broke down. The controller became sad and depressed! It tried to delegate responsibility to other systems, and other humans, to no effect.   

The controller started to become ill, and considered ending its responsibility mandate (the computer version of suicide), Luckily, a 24-hour temperature controller help line (1-888-RoboHelp) handled the depressed controller which reported back to a central responsibility authority owned by the manufacturer of the controller.  

This feedback helped prevent a potential liability lawsuit against the controller (and the manufacturer).

*** The End ***

(Based on a disasterous "true story" where thousands of dollars of grapes froze! This could have been prevented with emotion technology!)

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