Monday, November 01, 2010
Conundrum
A local radio ad for a tire store features a car talking to the car's driver. (Easy to do on radio, would be expensive on TV!)
Car is chiding Driver for poor maintenance, says it's past time for new tires. Car recommends a local tire store. Driver asks Car where he heard about these great sales on tires, and Car says "On the radio."
Driver says "Oh, the radio talks too?"
Car says "Of course."
This raises a corollary of the Pluto/Goofy conundrum.
The inanimate function of a car is non-verbal, so it makes sense for a 'humanoid' car to talk. But what about the radio? Its inanimate function is talking. How would the radio talk anthropomorphically? Would it talk through the same speaker that already carries the talking of distant humans as part of its basic mechanical function, or would it need a separate mouth for its own thoughts? Probably the latter. ¶ 6:22 AM
Car is chiding Driver for poor maintenance, says it's past time for new tires. Car recommends a local tire store. Driver asks Car where he heard about these great sales on tires, and Car says "On the radio."
Driver says "Oh, the radio talks too?"
Car says "Of course."
This raises a corollary of the Pluto/Goofy conundrum.
The inanimate function of a car is non-verbal, so it makes sense for a 'humanoid' car to talk. But what about the radio? Its inanimate function is talking. How would the radio talk anthropomorphically? Would it talk through the same speaker that already carries the talking of distant humans as part of its basic mechanical function, or would it need a separate mouth for its own thoughts? Probably the latter. ¶ 6:22 AM
