art filched from child / autistic kids and robots / uncomplicated love / horse who does arithmetic & talking dog

Of course, please click if you wish.

I was looking around for images of polygons and bumped into this, and filched it.

This has nothing to do with Kevin and his excellent robot, but when I studied psychology (don't get all excited, just one semester), we had to read about autistic children. Some of the most withdrawn, who rejected all social contact and interaction with human beings, were spontaneously fascinated with robots, and constructed elaborate artistic interactions with robots.

Since then, real robots have become enormously sophisticated -- including robots with quite sophisticated animated facial features that smile, frown, etc., not to mention sophisticated robot voices. I wonder how well autistic children warm to these real robots which are not of their own artistic invention.

Elvis Costello sings a plaintive love wail in which he yearns for one virtue in a romantic partner: Uncomplicated. Good luck. But that's what the spirit of the robot offers: Not necessarily unconditional love, like a cat or dog, but an Uncomplicated relationship without surprises, betrayal, mood swings. That must be terribly appealing to some personalities. A recent television documentary looked into the world of (I think just) men who spend thousands of dollars on gorgeous and highly realistic-looking female mannequins -- well, sex dolls -- but who build entire elaborate romantic partnerships with them. The documentary also looked deeply into the culture and community of the factory that builds these expensive mannequins, the attention they quickly learn to lavish on the products they make and sell, how the employees soon come to understand how important the mannequins are to each customer.

I don't know what a Diamel is. I don't know about dogs which can tell your fortune, but in 19th-century Europe there was an extremely famous performing horse which could answer very complicated arithmetic problems. We learned about him in psychology class too.

Guy goes into a bar, he has a dog. He tells the bartender he's broke but he doesn't want free drinks. "Look, the dog can talk. If the dog talks, will you give me drinks?" The bartender is already pretty annoyed at this business, but not much is happening and he is a little bored so he tells the guy to go ahead. The guy puts the dog on the bar and asks:

"What's on top of a house?"

The dog says: "ROOF!"

The bartender frowns.

"Wait a second! Wait a second!" the guy says. "Okay. What's wrapped around a tree?"

The dog says: "BARK!"

The bartender frowns more deeply.

"Wait a second! Wait a second!" the guy says. "Okay. Who was the greatest baseball player who ever lived?"

The dog says: "RUTH!"

That's enough for the bartender, who throws the guy and the dog out of the bar and into the gutter.

The dog looks up at the guy and asks: "DIMAGGIO?"

~ ~ ~

Uncomplicated

by Elvis Costello
from the album "Blood and Chocolate" (1986)

Blood and Chocolate
I hope you're satisfied what you have done
You think it's over now
But we've only just begun

I asked for water
And they gave me rose' wine
A horse that knows arithmetic
And a dog that tells your fortune

[Chorus:]

It's in your eyes
It's in your eyes
Uncomplicated

I want to buy you
A big blue Diamel
Cheap white plastic shoes
That don't walk out and don't let in

I want to show you
How I love you
When you're over me
There's no-one above you

[Chorus]

You think it's over now
But this is only the beginning

[Chorus]