On Wed, 15 Jul 1998 22:11:42 -0400 DavidM said:
>Robert A. Alexander wrote:
>> Hope to never have to make a long distance trip in a VW with your
>> attitude.
>>
>You REALLY think an inanimate object can sense how you feel... give me a
>break!

ah, the gauntlet has been flopped at our feet!!! :)

what is the difference between an inanimate object "having feelings"
and a human projecting feelings onto an inanimate object??

or for that matter, does an animal, such as a dog or cat, have "feelings"?
most dog owners will tell you that, yes, THEIR dog has feelings. THEIR dog
knows when he/she has been naughty or is being scolded or praised. etc.
but you and i both know of dogs and cats that have to be complete and utter
morons, totally without feelings or any hint of intelligence. like some of
my coworkers. :)

hmmm. well, ok, dogs have brains. brains have electrical impulses bumping
around inside ... sort of like our brains. so at least it MIGHT be possible
that a dog has "feelings". a dog therefore could be "jealous" of attention
paid to a child, cat, or other dog. a dog therefore could be "hurt" if you
neglect to play with it.

but a machine? ahhhh, but is it JUST a machine?? what about all the people
who dug up the iron ore and the other people who melted that ore and made
the steel that was made into the beams, sheets, screws, and bolts that
went into the doors, body, frame, wheels, and other parts of the car? didn't
those people, all along the assembly process, have "feelings" and some sort
of "personality"?? and is it possible perhaps that those feelings and
personalities might not be somehow "etched" into the metal, fabric, wires,
and glass of the car itself? such that the car, when finished, is a product
of all the personalities that built it ... which is why perhaps a Monday or
Friday car is not as good as a Wednesday car: the people building it didn't
feel good while building it.

oh, sure, it's easy to say that Monday and Friday cars are crappier because
the people didn't try as hard on those days. they made more mistakes. but
with modern assembly lines, is that all that can make that sort of difference?
or is it, for example, why the cars produced on lines with more robots have
less "personality" ... because there were fewer people building them. the
Vanagons seem to have, according to the bus consensus, LESS "personality"
than the split-window buses. the splits were all hand welded and hand-built.
the Vanagons had many many robot-welds, robot painted, and assembies that were
done completely by robot. and the Eurovan probably even more.

people do tend to project personalities or persona onto inanimate objects,
sometimes those persona are similar to the person doing the
projecting. sometimes completely different. perhaps a way of letting out a
subconscious split-personality? and some people simply do not get along with
machines .. any sort of machine. projection again? self-destructive types of
projection? it is true that men tend to project male "personalities" on their
machines, and women tend to project female "personalities" on theirs. but not
always. yet, some buses have a "personality" that jumps out at their owners,
and other buses, owned by the same people, don't. if it's projected by the
owner, why not?

at any rate, it is true, in my limited experience, and in the writings of
others on the same subject, that machines fare better in the company of
people who do believe that perhaps, just perhaps, the machine does have a
sort of "personality". obviously, a person who believes this, even for a tiny
bit, will take better care of his/her "machine" ... just as they would take
better care of a dog or cat (than someone who thinks dogs or cats are just
"animals" and not "part of the family"). i don't think it matters if the
machine or the person is the one with the personality ... what matters is the
treatment of the machine. and without a leeeeeeeetle bit of that belief,
the machine suffers. and when the machine suffers, the person will suffer.

unca joel. :)

who used to work with a computer that hated a couple of the other workers.
if i walked out of the room, when one of the two people were present, the
machine would crash. as long as i stayed in the room, it would run fine.
if they got there before me, it would not start up. when i came in, it worked
just fine. the engineers could never find anything wrong with it.
Coincidence? :)  You Be The Judge. ;)