8 ms·

Weird future moment: a 21st century industry titan has to use puppies, kitties, and children to sell a machine that freely dispenses the sum total of humanity's

by jpxxx 14y ago

Weird future moment: a 21st century industry titan has to use puppies, kitties, and children to sell a machine that freely dispenses the sum total of humanity's knowledge.

jerf 14y ago
Because the latter is not a distinguishing characteristic. Everything does that now.
- freehunter 14y ago
  That's why it's a weird future moment. We're living in an era where all the information in the world is so readily available that the market for devices that can display this information is hugely competitive.
mmahemoff 14y ago
I had exactly the same weird future moment a few hours ago when I saw the Android event invite: "The playground is open" [1]. Got me thinking what Mad Men era execs would make of it all. 1. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/10/googles-october-29-android-event-the-playground-is-open/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/10/googles-october-29-an...
- chaz 14y ago
  Good question, but the medium has changed. That's a media invitation card, that is guaranteed to be carried by online tech sites, but we'll likely never see in Mad Man era TV or print.
jpadvo 14y ago
<passionate_rant> Since I learned I was going to be a dad (in 7 months!), I've found these kinds of advertisements increasingly unsettling, in an uncanny-valley kind of way. I love my tiny one. I've heard the quick little heartbeat. I'm largely responsible for if this little person grows up happy and healthy. The enormity of the ensuing feelings is impossible to express. Uncanny valley situations arise when a simulation looks almost real, maybe 96% real, but the 4% difference is very unsettling because it just looks _off_. You feel a creeping sensation that something is wrong. In this video, Google very poignantly portrays a bunch of vibrant people, children and fathers prominently featured. They are picking at the deepest heartstrings I've ever known. At the deepest anxieties and aspirations that it is possible to have in the human experience. It's 96% poignant. But...they're doing this for what reason again? So they can sell me a $250 piece of electronics and absorb my family into their ecosystem? It's a 4% that makes the entire rest of it feel fake. Turns out that cognitive dissonance relating to your children, even peripherally, is really uncomfortable. :/ </passionate_rant>
- jerf 14y ago
  Hey, there's a reason "Won't somebody please think of the children?" is such a devastatingly effective argument. I've found it is an effective cognitive defense to learn to become pissed off that somebody would be so manipulative as to reach for that. It's the cognitive-emotional equivalent of grabbing you by the balls, and it's not a polite move.
  - bduerst 14y ago
    Appeals to emotion rarely have any substance - but remember that sometimes there is other supporting evidence for arguments, even if an emotional appeal is used.
- stevebenjamins 14y ago
  Well said!
- haberman 14y ago
  I don't mean to deny your gut/emotional response. But isn't all of capitalism based on the idea that two entities can make an exchange that is mutually beneficial? On the purely economic level, Google is offering a hunk of electronics and software for $250. (There are secondary economic effects too; the Chromebook will encourage the use of Google services, etc). On the emotional level, Google is offering an an experience and trying to show how it could be a part of your family life and make it better. And you are offering Google employees a chance to feel like they're making the world better (speaking as a Googler, I can say that I definitely care about that sort of thing). As a completely honest question: do you feel this way about ads that sell diapers/baby-food/etc? ps. Congratulations on fatherhood!
  - jpadvo 14y ago
    Thanks! No, I don't really have this visceral reaction (or at least not nearly as much) to baby companies, but that is probably because none of their stuff that I've seen feels as starkly personal as this video. Maybe their stuff is 50% to 80% compelling, and thus doesn't make it into uncanny valley territory. Also, because products more fundamentally require themes of babies / children / parenting, so discordance is limited anyway. That's an interesting thought about the emotional exchange, I never thought of people in a company as recipients in an emotional exchange with their customers. Fascinating.
deleted 14y ago
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by jpxxx 14y ago

Weird future moment: a 21st century industry titan has to use puppies, kitties, and children to sell a machine that freely dispenses the sum total of humanity's knowledge.

jerf 14y ago

Because the latter is not a distinguishing characteristic. Everything does that now.

freehunter 14y ago
That's why it's a weird future moment. We're living in an era where all the information in the world is so readily available that the market for devices that can display this information is hugely competitive.

mmahemoff 14y ago

I had exactly the same weird future moment a few hours ago when I saw the Android event invite: "The playground is open" [1]. Got me thinking what Mad Men era execs would make of it all. 1. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/10/googles-october-29-android-event-the-playground-is-open/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/10/googles-october-29-an...

chaz 14y ago
Good question, but the medium has changed. That's a media invitation card, that is guaranteed to be carried by online tech sites, but we'll likely never see in Mad Man era TV or print.

jpadvo 14y ago

<passionate_rant> Since I learned I was going to be a dad (in 7 months!), I've found these kinds of advertisements increasingly unsettling, in an uncanny-valley kind of way. I love my tiny one. I've heard the quick little heartbeat. I'm largely responsible for if this little person grows up happy and healthy. The enormity of the ensuing feelings is impossible to express. Uncanny valley situations arise when a simulation looks almost real, maybe 96% real, but the 4% difference is very unsettling because it just looks _off_. You feel a creeping sensation that something is wrong. In this video, Google very poignantly portrays a bunch of vibrant people, children and fathers prominently featured. They are picking at the deepest heartstrings I've ever known. At the deepest anxieties and aspirations that it is possible to have in the human experience. It's 96% poignant. But...they're doing this for what reason again? So they can sell me a $250 piece of electronics and absorb my family into their ecosystem? It's a 4% that makes the entire rest of it feel fake. Turns out that cognitive dissonance relating to your children, even peripherally, is really uncomfortable. :/ </passionate_rant>

jerf 14y ago
Hey, there's a reason "Won't somebody please think of the children?" is such a devastatingly effective argument. I've found it is an effective cognitive defense to learn to become pissed off that somebody would be so manipulative as to reach for that. It's the cognitive-emotional equivalent of grabbing you by the balls, and it's not a polite move.
- bduerst 14y ago
  Appeals to emotion rarely have any substance - but remember that sometimes there is other supporting evidence for arguments, even if an emotional appeal is used.
stevebenjamins 14y ago
Well said!
haberman 14y ago
I don't mean to deny your gut/emotional response. But isn't all of capitalism based on the idea that two entities can make an exchange that is mutually beneficial? On the purely economic level, Google is offering a hunk of electronics and software for $250. (There are secondary economic effects too; the Chromebook will encourage the use of Google services, etc). On the emotional level, Google is offering an an experience and trying to show how it could be a part of your family life and make it better. And you are offering Google employees a chance to feel like they're making the world better (speaking as a Googler, I can say that I definitely care about that sort of thing). As a completely honest question: do you feel this way about ads that sell diapers/baby-food/etc? ps. Congratulations on fatherhood!
- jpadvo 14y ago
  Thanks! No, I don't really have this visceral reaction (or at least not nearly as much) to baby companies, but that is probably because none of their stuff that I've seen feels as starkly personal as this video. Maybe their stuff is 50% to 80% compelling, and thus doesn't make it into uncanny valley territory. Also, because products more fundamentally require themes of babies / children / parenting, so discordance is limited anyway. That's an interesting thought about the emotional exchange, I never thought of people in a company as recipients in an emotional exchange with their customers. Fascinating.

deleted 14y ago

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