Ecotic 2 2020 “Pathetic machines“
The gommy-gluey-slimmy objects are objects that people attach to and attach to people. The objects that force their ways to settle down in people lives, in places they live or in places they work. Liquid intelligence is that which flows through troubles, that which prefers avoiding obstacles rather than tackle them up front. Liquid intelligence avoids showdown and prefers dissolution, fleeing away, or networking. Paradoxically, gommy-gluey-slimmy objects and liquid intelligence fit with each others remarkably. Smartphone is the perfect comtemporary example of such objects, but it is far from being the only one. A certain kind of robotics has resolutely chosen that path. More “companion robotics”, rather than “social robotics”. It would yet be quite a shortcut to consider that these objects or artifacts are a specifity of our time. These objects have certainly existed synchronously to humanity. Artifacts that were rapidely classified as religious or superstitious by archeologists. The connection with the relationship with stuffed animals is a fertile example of such bonds with objects that shake down simplistic explanations.