Like Cyrano giving advice to Christian from underneath Roxanne’s balcony, now you too can can advise young suitors trying to win the heart of the object of their affection.
[Lauren] had the idea of using objective, third-party observers checking in on her dating activities and giving advice as to what she should do next. Yes, she’s streaming her dates over the Internet and asking for advice from Mechanical Turk workers.
The idea behind this project isn’t that [Lauren] isn’t looking for advice from her own Cyrano, but rather to open up new, previously unexpected possibilities. Turk workers will watch the stream while [Lauren] presents them with options telling her to smile more, laugh, change the subject, or ask a question. [Lauren] receives these results as a text message, where she’ll comply with the Internet’s wishes and hope her date doesn’t go horribly awry.
It’s an interesting project to say the least, but we’ve got to wonder about the quality of the advice given from her online advisers. Turk workers do take their jobs more seriously than random people on the Internet, so barring an invasion from /b/, [Lauren]’s night might just go alright.
Interesting idea for sure, but I pick
E. Stop texting during our date!
Oh, so you too remember those times, where on a date, the only thing you could think about was the date itself? So you even forgot that you have a phone with you, because you were smart enough to turn it off? :D
you mean her date says something, she writes it on her cyrano-dashboard and waits for a turk consensus to be reached?
remember me never to date her! ;)
no, wait, it’s creepier, she streams the whole date.
ok, remember me NEVER to date her!
Needs more local subtlety – deliver the hints via hidden earbud or maybe even via Google Glass or similar. And needs commercialization. Reality TV show where the consensus of the audience is the advice given to the date participant. Not that I’d watch it, but that seems like the logical expansion of this idea.
Yea, nothing says “date me” like secret-service style listening apparatus.
Sims IRL coming to a mobile phone near you!
Although I would be more willing to do this in reverse … getting paid to complete an action on a date rather then paying someone else to make choices for me.
They have this, its called prostitution.
you are damn right! this is the worst idea ever!
really grasping at straws on this one Brian.
I have to agree, its also pretty desperate if you need advice like that during a date. A date is about being you not about being whatever some pedo on the net says.
I’d rather date someone who Isn’t so damn indecisive that they have to let other people pick their actions for them. “So, would you rather go do? eat first or the movie?” “Hmm, I dunno, let me get a vote on that”. Maybe i’d be better off just skipping the chick that can’t think for herself and hire some strangely random, ethnic temp service robots to date instead!?
Wow, really??
1. this is at least an amusing experiment.
2. “ethnic temp” really?
1.it is an amusing experiment ….. reminds me of derren browns “the gameshow”
2. Im going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that is meant as a pun on “turk”. but if your going in that direction you could easily say she is putting her happyness in the hands of mongoloids
I think I’ll borrow from Jurrasic Park for this one: “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
mTurk + GreasyMonkey = Profit
i cant be the only one who made a bunch of money off of that back in the day?
If this is her idea of a date, she should stay at home with her cats.
Puts me in mind of Gamer.
‘Who’s playing You?’
I think it’s just an experiment. An Internet experiment rather than a real, scientific one. If you look at her other projects she does a lot of social interaction type things. I suspect the interest isn’t in what her or her date does but more what the mechanical turks are doing and telling her to do.
Saying that I agree with what others have said, for me a date with a woman who constantly checks her phone would be a short date
Suppose her date partner were doing the same thing? I think that could be a lot of fun actually if both persons were geeky like this =)
her partner could be the one offering the advice through turk!
So HOT! One step close to dating a computer.
4chan would have a heyday with this and option B).
Is the point of this to use mechanical turk to pretend to be an android? I would assume Lauren takes no actions beyond what is instructed of her?
If so to both counts, this is hilarious, and what a fantastic idea =)
Option B means this little experiment has an 80% chance of going downhill oh so quickly…
Perhaps dating is a part of life that shouldn’t necessarily be hacked.
4Chan
Interesting. One wonders if something like this could end up being a meatspace version of teleconferencing, as a human being wearing the mic/speaker/camera etc paid by the hour with precise instructions is still cheaper than sending a robot.
Could this be a solution to unemployment?
Arrested Development did that 10 years ago, when George Sr had a body double while he was under house arrest.
Have we learned nothing from “Ed TV”?