this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
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me_irl

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[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 62 points 3 days ago (3 children)

We accept how people anthropomorphize basic machines, but when they fall for more sophisticated things like LLMs we call them dumb. Blame the human brain, it's wired to be that way.

Also blame the corporate greed that ruined what could have been a good tool if developed responsibly.

[–] Tyrq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Difference is they don't believe the vacuum is sentient, but llms use natural language in a form where we already accepted the text came from a human before now

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 28 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I mean... printers are absolutely sentient, and evil.

[–] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 3 days ago

I don't think they are sentient, but there is definitely some sort of evil involved. I'm not sure if they themselves are the source of evil or they are acting as some sort of portal that lets evil into our world.

[–] rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 16 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I don't have a rational reason for this, but I think anthropomorphizing machines makes more sense on an emotional level for dumb machines than for smart ones. Kind of like the brave little toaster, or Wall-E going against the space ship's autopilot. I guess part of it might be that we see the limitations dumb machines have and it reminds us about our own flaws and limitations, which makes us empathize with a Roomba more than with Alexa or ChatGPT.

[–] usrtrv@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago

I think embodiment plays a larger role. We anthropomorphize physical things.

The reverse of this, people often dehumanize other people when interacting with them virtually.

[–] tamal3@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Y'all need to name your vacuum. Uncharles does a great job at my house.

[–] t_berium@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Marvin is doing his job.

[–] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

I named mine Nemo because he's always finding things. Like socks.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Uncharles? Was Decarl taken by your humidifier?

[–] tamal3@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Who is Decarl? Uncharles is a character from an Adrian Tchaikovsky book. He's a butler robot who kills his master and denies his own sentience. Super charmer.

[–] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Aptly named

[–] orenj@leminal.space 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Mine is Pazuzu, he wards off Lamashtu with his fell winds (also he is evil, because he is a robot)

[–] Sculptor9157@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

Yours also has a theme song to play during operation.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Half-way around the world, a Filipino teenager contemplates answering, while staring at an upskirt shot of an old woman.

[–] Broadfern@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago

Our robovac is the only machine I’m nice to lol. I talk to her like she’s one of the cats

[–] Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca 12 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I treated the stupid vac robot like garbage, because it was. worst modern device I've seen in a while... stuck on EVERYTHING constantly. was always faster just doing it myself.

[–] KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

I had a Shark one that was like that and then I got a Roborock and it does a great job of avoiding obstacles.

[–] bitfucker@programming.dev 6 points 3 days ago

It was meant for low effort cleaning. Like, "you go to work without needing to clean" cleaning

I named mine after Thor's hammer.

Johnathan.

[–] Fmstrat@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)