🦾 A ramble about robots
I did not intend for this to happen.
Aquarius rules, welcome to the big wide world. I don’t have a lot to say about the planets or the sky this week, except that we’re over that first little hump of new Pluto energy in Aquarius. The Sun has happily moved forward and has some breathing room in the middle of the sign.
All I’ll add is that we’re about a week and a half away from a really big pile up in Aquarius. From the 16th to the 19th of February we’ll have the Sun, Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Pluto in Aquarius. So not a bad idea to look at where Aquarius is in your chart, consider the themes of that house (use this old newsletter for help), and reflect before that window of time hits.
Come with me on a little ramble about the robots; they aren’t my friends.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about today, but then while I was sitting at my hobby desk (the desk I don’t sit at for W-2 work) being not sure, I heard something digital. Read below around for the ensuing existential spiral.
The sound was something that I am pretty sure came out of speakers. It wasn’t caused by two physical objects hitting each other or by a bird outside or something else alive. It was a little like a sonar sound, but it was hard to tell because the trash truck is also working its way down the street in front of my house.
Here’s a list of the things that could have made the noise, assuming it is digital and in the same room as me: my laptop, my iPad, my work laptop, my work monitor (there are speakers), my little treadmill (when she speaks it’s somewhere between a Japanese and a French accent), my standing fan (are there speakers? there’s a remote, so I’m not sure), my Peloton, my phone, my old laptop from high school I haven’t gotten rid of, or my headphones. I guess it could’ve been my Apple watch or my little Bose speaker, but I had eyes on the watch and I think the speaker is out of battery.
I don’t have a very cogent point for this, other than that when I heard that little sound I was suddenly very aware of how many things in my surroundings are sort of … actors? Subjects more than objects? Maybe not the standing fan, but most of the other tech in that list has both the capacity for input and output. I guess that’s not sufficient to make something a subject, but it seems relevant that in one way or another they can all hear me. That disembodied noise made me think about the difference between being actually alone and being alone but surrounded by robots. I am, and probably you are, surrounded by robots.
I used to get easily overwhelmed when I was not alone. Not quite to bubble boy status, but I tended to feel a lot of pressure to perform some kind of role if I was sharing space. Whether it was a date, a professional interaction, time with friends, or being in my apartment with just my dog, I was sketching the outline that made up my “self” in reference to “the other”. A constant tug on my attention and energy to be aware. As I understand it, this, basically, is how we all create ourselves and how we move through the world, to some extent. We are how we perform ourselves to others or something.
Lately, as in the past couple years, I’ve been really wrestling with how much I adapt that performance. And whether it’s the zeitgeist (algorithm) or just a phase of life thing (algorithm), this seems to be front of mind for a lot of my friends as well. Moving as far away as possible from being “in reference to” and as close as possible to being “regardless of” -- everyone I know wants to run away to a cabin in the woods without cell service or WiFi, except it’s too expensive. A little bit, everyone wants to be alone.
But then, when you’re alone, it gets hard eventually. You keep refreshing your group chats, you go out of your way to chit chat with a store clerk, you make surprise phone calls. A little bit, no one wants to be alone.
I talked about this when my dog died in the fall and I was left with just my vacuum robot to keep my company, and then there was a really good piece by P.E. Moskowitz about how they’ve fallen in love with their own vacuum. Turns out, a robot can make you feel less alone in a really good way. I think Moskowitz’s is a higher end version than what I’ve got, but the piece still resonated. These little electronic guys keep us company.
At first it seems like there isn’t an inherent value-laden quality to the “less alone” feeling that the robots give me, except in the sense that, generally speaking, they elicit less guilt. I don’t feel a duty to them (except I need to change his filter, but that’s my deal more than his). This is different from how my dog made me feel or how my cats now makes me feel. The mammals are my responsibility and I love them and they require effort. To be present to my friends who I care for immensely requires effort, even the ones who I can sit next to in silence for hours while we read or doodle or write or stare at the ceiling.
And that is the trap! That’s the little unforced error that someone like me has to be very aware of as the robots get better at being robots and the people become cyborgs and everything falls apart in unique, frightening ways.
Getting to feel basically like I am not alone, like I’m being taken care of in some way, attended to, but not having any reciprocal pressure, is not great. This is how I could become a shut in who has his nutrition administered via scheduled Amazon IV Robots©. Ashamed to admit it, but it’s true, I could become this way, and I think I’m not alone in that.
I don’t think it’s good for us to be able to manufacture the feeling of being not alone and also alone at the same time. We need all parts of the cycle, we need to crave being alone from time to time and then we need to feel like we’re missing out, we need to want to see people. Robots don’t need anything from me, but they can make me feel cared for and that’s pretty much Bad™. All things in moderation I guess, there will certainly be effective use cases for robotics in caretaking, but wow it is scary!
On the one hand, this is alarmist and I don’t think I need to worry about accidentally replacing friendships with robots yet, but also what is Rosey from The Jetsons really other than three Roombas stacked on top of each other wearing a trenchcoat? Like I’ve talked about, we’ve just really moved forward into the Pluto in Aquarius period and can expect more and more challenges and explosive developments in the world of robots and community. The future is here and I think it maybe wants to make being alone feel good.
So I still am not positive where that sound came from, but I do appreciate a little more how the two new cats I’ve got (I foster failed last week and then got that cat a friend) need soooo much attention from me. They’re both requiring lots of care and accommodation, which my robot vacuum and my laptop and my phone and my Peloton bike do not ever even a little bit ask for.
For someone like me, with a fragile egg shell around my ego that likes to maintain a healthy distance from others, caring for animals is a good exercise in not falling for the robots, a reminder of the value of being depended upon. It’s got me thinking about how easy it has been to not volunteer in my community as I’ve gotten older, how giving cash to organizations (even great local ones!) has largely replaced giving time and attention. I’m not sure yet where I’ll go to address that, but I’ll keep you updated. More community support with your time in 2024, fewer robots keeping you company.
If you stuck around, wow! That’s wild. Let me know what you think, I am v interested in reading more if you have any interesting tidbits you’ve come across about robots and robot laws.
Also, a point that didn’t fit here but that I want to make: A.I. has done a good job of not letting their brand be robots, but we need to keep that front of mind. Robots are much scarier than the friendly chat machine at OpenAI.
TTYL.