Presence
The sound of water from the fountain creates a soft accompaniment to the afternoon. It mingles with a silky cool breeze and the invigorating buzz of this coffee.
I’ve been dreaming of people from my past. Odd situations. The feeling I have is that I am missing, by the flutter of a butterfly’s wing, some interesting insight…
Earlier, I was reading this article about a group of engineers trying to create a robot with a sense of presence. (ZDNet has more on “BabyBot” here.) When you talk of presence, you delve into self-awareness and at least the foundations of a mind. The fact that the engineers are creating their robot based on studies of how babies perceive and learn to understand the world makes the project even more intriguing.
I wonder at a machine that has a sense of presence. And I also wonder: at what point does imitating a thing create the thing you are imitating?
Right now, the pond is spreading ripples — and the sky is deepening toward a rain shower. The air has stilled.
Things are…expectant.