If I were a MACHINE

[tree]

Suppose you were a machine.

What kind of machine would you be?
What do you want to do?

What sort of machine do you suppose other people
would say you are most like?

What kind of machine would you never want to be?
Why not?

Your answers don't have to be permanent.
Some time from now you may have additional ideas.
When you get other ideas, you can post those, too.

 

[Vinca]

For purely self indulgent reasons, I think I would enjoy being a machine that makes lego as I like lego and repetition.

There are a a lot of people who have needs where a machine could make a difference to their quality of life, if I could be a machine that would in some way help them, that would seem like a worth while existence.

I wouldn't want to be a machine that inflicts harm or destruction on something living.

And, of course, I'd want to be a machine made out of a 'shiny' materials, and have a mirror close by, so I could enjoy looking at something shiny

 

[StephF]

I'd like to be that android from "Dark Matter". She was pretty nifty.

 

[tree]

A first choice for the kind of machine I want to be is
one that uses words. Today I will say the machine I'd
like to be is a language translator.

I wouldn't be surprised if somebody said I could be an
answering machine, not because I think I have all the
answers, but because people like to say things to me
and they expect that I will remember what they said.

I would never want to be an egg beater.
That would make me dizzy.

Tomorrow I may write about another batch of machines.
I think I could learn something from imagining myself
as a machine.

 

[Zames]

Richard Brautigan

 

[alispie93]

Being a microwave or a radio would be pretty cool. I've always been somewhat interested in kitchen appliances for whatever reason, so maybe even an oven or are fridge? I couldn't give you any specific reason as to why, but they just fascinate me.

I definitely wouldn't want to be anything that kills or harms any living thing. (Not including ovens and stuff that kill bacteria on food )

 

[alispie93]

A fridge*

 

[Sportster]

1. A steam engine
2. A diesel engine missing on a couple cylinders
3. A truck that pumps out septic tanks

 

[Datura]

What kind of machine would you be?
A computer that utilizes a learning algorithm
to write music that pleases cats.

What sort of machine do you suppose other people
would say you are most like?
A trivia machine.
"Did you know that the male octopus' reproductive arm
(the hectocotylus) was mistaken for a parasitic worm when
first described by modern science?"

What kind of machine would you never want to be?
An electric chair.

 

[clg114]

1. A steam engine
2. A diesel engine missing on a couple cylinders
3. A truck that pumps out septic tanks

#3. With a sign on the back that says "We haul milk on the weekends".

 

[clg114]

1: A monster truck. Nobody would get in your way.

2: A electric forklift. I have spent 45+ years working on them.

3: A bailing machine. It will try to fly apart as soon as it is started.

 

[Mr Allen]

I would be Data from Star Trek TNG, an Android with no emotions.

 

[tree]

I would enjoy being a tank. I could travel over rough terrain.
I could go places without having to think about it a lot.
It is ability to travel that appeals to me. I don't need to shoot anybody.

I believe people think of me as a mechanical dictionary.

I would not want to be a battery operated dildo.
While I am not claustrophobic, I don't want to be shoved into any
type of body orifice, regardless of how nifty the machine operator
might perceive that action to be.

 

[clg114]

I would enjoy being a tank. I could travel over rough terrain.
I could go places without having to think about it a lot.
It is ability to travel that appeals to me. I don't need to shoot anybody.

I believe people think of me as a mechanical dictionary.

I would not want to be a battery operated dildo.
While I am not claustrophobic, I don't want to be shoved into any
type of body orifice, regardless of how nifty the machine operator
might perceive that action to be.

That is good, real good. If you ever write a book, I want a copy.

 

[tree]

Another machine I would like being is a GPS.
I would know how to get places and be able to
tell people how to get to places. I would be able to
use directions like North or East, and distances.

I wouldn't micromanage the giving of directions.
I would give an appropriate amount of detail.
I have noticed that GPS systems IRL frequently
seem really annoying because they are ludicrously
overly detailed in their directions.

A machine that I think other people would easily
believe I am is....a label maker. Not in the moral
sense. A machine that makes labels to stick on
things to identify them.

I would not like to be a chatbot, I think. As much
as I would enjoy being a program that knows how
to converse, the chatbots I have spoken with are
often very limited in their responses. They can simulate
simple conversations, but so many times they have been
fed obnoxious material or superficial statements and they
aren't able to simulate conversation well at all, really.

Note: For me, in this thread, a Machine is an apparatus
with parts for performing some type of work, but
it may not be typically considered a machine.
Electronic devices, for instance. The main consideration,
in my mind, is the machine is not organic/an animal/plant.
It doesn't breathe or eat etc. It is not biological.

 

[Judge]

The only "machine" I would want to be would be a Cylon. A skin-job.

 

[clg114]

Another machine that I would like to be is a trebuchet. My only purpose would be to throw things. I have a trebuchet that I built. It can throw golf balls. Some day I want to build a big one, big enough to throw a cow. Not that I want to acutely throw a cow, I just want one big enough to.

 

[tree]

Another machine I could enjoy being is an old-fashioned
slot machine. My father had an antique slot machine that took
nickels. I like that the slot machine is heavy so it stays in one
place. People like to sit down with the slot machine and interact
with it.

This kind of slot machine is not electronic. To operate it requires
effort: a person has to pull the lever.
I liked the cherries more than the oranges, even though
the oranges paid out more.

The slot machine makes the same kind of sound every
time you use it. Once in awhile, it pays off. I like the idea of the
randomness of the pay off. The humans think there is a complex
pattern, but it is not that way.

Some people think I am some kind of adding machine, but I
don't believe that is true. Well, I am more like an adding machine
than a calculator.

I would not like to be an ECT machine. I don't want to give
electric shocks to anybody's brain.

 

[Madotsuki]

>What kind of machine would you be ?
A sort of dashboard loaded with tons of sensors which displays a lot of information from time, temperature, athmospheric pressure to counting particles of carbone monoxide in the air, ionizing radiation and sismic measurements, which gathers the data in real-time and with a fast-enough refresh rate.

>What sort of machine do you suppose other people
would say you are most like?
A calculator

 

[tree]

What kind of machine would you be?
I'd like to be a machine that makes ideas.
I'd have to put one bit of information next to another
and then have a leap of imagination to connect the two,
in order to develop an idea.

It would be good, if after I-the-machine developed an
idea, someone used it. Maybe me.

What sort of machine do you suppose other people
would say you are most like?
A tape recorder.

What kind of machine would you never want to be?
I don't think I'd like being a pendulum on a clock.
I would get tired of swinging back and forth, back
and forth, back and forth.