Experimental Sociology in Cyborgsociability

In the interest of comparative urban sociology of global cities, somebody needs to do this is in Singapore (Botanical Gardens, Orchard Road, or somewhere in the Heartland?)…

Watch the video…
http://www.tweenbots.com/

From the website:
“Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter… Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal… The results were unexpected. Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal… One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, “You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.”