decommissioned ovenbird I was reminded of the frog_in_a_blender after watching a very strange three minute film that depicts the “decommissioning” of the F.02 robots developed by a company called Figure AI. Figure has developed a new model of its humanoid robots and it didn’t want anyone to get their hands on the old model for fear that they would reverse engineer and steal the proprietary hardware. Figure thought that dissembling the robots so that materials could be recovered and recycled would be too time consuming and would risk having intellectual property stolen, so they decided on a far more dramatic disposal method: they trained their AI robots to leap to their deaths into a 75 ton electric arc furnace at a foundry in Finland where they were instantly melted. Some of the molten metal was recovered to make “commemorative artifacts,” but nothing was truly recycled in a meaningful way. Figure made a Terminator-esque film of the robots doing front flips into a flaming furnace full of molten metal, which literally starred Arnold Schwartzenegger, and had the robotic bodies giving a thumbs up as they sunk into the pit of their own destruction. The film itself featured no AI. It was a true representation of robots being programmed to enact their own deaths. I watched it three times and felt a creeping sense of horror crawling all over my body. Like the frog in the blender, I could not watch the robot deaths without the full activation of my own empathy. I suspect this is not a “normal” response. Most people can likely detach themselves from the fate of the robots because the robots are not “real,” in the sense that they do not have anything like consciousness and can not truly experience fear or pain. But I wonder about the underlying narratives and what it means for humanity. Not to mention the extraordinary waste being generated by tech companies as they rush to develop AI powered robotics. Maybe I relate to the robots because I too feel that I am approaching the end of my “usefulness” as a human. I’m getting old. My reproductive system is shutting down. I won’t have even the vestiges of youthful beauty much longer. I’m in decline and the younger generations are snapping at my heels. What good am I? My value as a woman is so tied to my physical appearance, my fertility, my desirability to men…so what am I once I no longer carry those currencies? Will the world melt me down? Have me go willingly to my own obsolescence and disappear? It’s not a completely absurd thought. Many women feel invisible as they age and I’m beginning to understand that feeling. Maybe it’s insane. Maybe I’m overreacting to what is just an entertaining video made by a company finding a creative solution to a disposal problem. But our realities are shaped by the narratives we apply to them, so stories matter. I wonder about this particular story because it is one that develops ideas about what (and who) is disposable. I would love to hear perspectives if anyone has thoughts! This is only a half formed argument at this point. All I know is that the Figure 02 video disturbed me. There was something viscerally upsetting about watching those human shaped bodies spinning through space into a real life version of Mount Doom. I don’t quite know what it means. But I know what it feels like. And it doesn’t feel good. 261003 ... raze i'm made to think of sun yuan and peng yu's 2016 art installation piece "can't help myself", for which they programmed a robotic arm to spend its whole life trying to shovel leaking hydraulic fluid dyed to resemble blood back into itself. in the beginning, the robot would dance around and spend most of its time interacting with the audience, since the spillage was easy enough to contain. after three years, it could only frantically try to save itself while bleeding out all over the studio floor. there was something devastating about watching this machine fight for just a little more life. something almost human. its final movements sounded like screams. how cruel to create something so ephemeral only to stand back and watch it fall apart. and god nods his head and smiles. 261003 what's it to you? who go blather from