Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I wrote a program that sends cats to my phone when I'm sad at the computer

healeycodes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 87 posts

Re: I wrote a program that sends cats to my phone when I'm sad at the computer

#31

Post by z3c0 »

charcircuit wrote: post #16
butwhywhyoh wrote: post #3

Does anyone else find this mildly dystopian? I mean, it's a cool and really fun project, but it doesn't take much imagination to envision a service like this actually taking off. "We monitor your mood 24/7 and automatically send you 'happy thoughts' on demand! Contemplating your feelings? Why bother! Here's a cute cat video! Never feel uncomfortable, pensive, or existential again!"

Why is cheering people up dystopian?

It's the premise of Brave New World. It tells of a society subjugated through genetic-engineering and hedonistic entertainment. I think a quick dose of happiness is pretty akin to "soma", a drug the characters use to avoid bad feelings.

Re: I wrote a program that sends cats to my phone when I'm sad at the computer

#32

Post by mox1 »

butwhywhyoh wrote: post #3

Does anyone else find this mildly dystopian? I mean, it's a cool and really fun project, but it doesn't take much imagination to envision a service like this actually taking off. "We monitor your mood 24/7 and automatically send you 'happy thoughts' on demand! Contemplating your feelings? Why bother! Here's a cute cat video! Never feel uncomfortable, pensive, or existential again!"

This was a scene in the movie Don't Look Up. A cellphone company CEO (a Zukerburg type character) introduces the 9.5 update, which includes emotion sensors. When you are sad, it automatically shows you pictures of cats.

So yes, I do.

Edit: Here is the video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jTHBBkillM&t=96s

(My bad it was the 14.3 update and dogs riding chickens)

Re: I wrote a program that sends cats to my phone when I'm sad at the computer

#33

Post by bjt2n3904 »

All at once, it fills up my feed

More bad news that I didn't need

I can't stop reading but I wish that I didn't know

Still too soon, there's not much to say

They don't know, but talk anyway

All of the pieces, and none of the places they go

So I am looking at pictures of cats

https://youtu.be/4JO-KRT0Vf0

Re: I wrote a program that sends cats to my phone when I'm sad at the computer

#35

Post by Otek »

butwhywhyoh wrote: post #3

Does anyone else find this mildly dystopian? I mean, it's a cool and really fun project, but it doesn't take much imagination to envision a service like this actually taking off. "We monitor your mood 24/7 and automatically send you 'happy thoughts' on demand! Contemplating your feelings? Why bother! Here's a cute cat video! Never feel uncomfortable, pensive, or existential again!"

There is already a product for employers that automatically monitors if and how long employee smiles while talking with customers (although masks probably slowed it down). Don’t remember the name though.

Re: I wrote a program that sends cats to my phone when I'm sad at the computer

#37

Post by [deleted] »

butwhywhyoh wrote: post #3

Does anyone else find this mildly dystopian? I mean, it's a cool and really fun project, but it doesn't take much imagination to envision a service like this actually taking off. "We monitor your mood 24/7 and automatically send you 'happy thoughts' on demand! Contemplating your feelings? Why bother! Here's a cute cat video! Never feel uncomfortable, pensive, or existential again!"

[deleted]

Re: I wrote a program that sends cats to my phone when I'm sad at the computer

#40

Post by lasercat »

mox1 wrote: post #32
butwhywhyoh wrote: post #3

Does anyone else find this mildly dystopian? I mean, it's a cool and really fun project, but it doesn't take much imagination to envision a service like this actually taking off. "We monitor your mood 24/7 and automatically send you 'happy thoughts' on demand! Contemplating your feelings? Why bother! Here's a cute cat video! Never feel uncomfortable, pensive, or existential again!"

This was a scene in the movie Don't Look Up. A cellphone company CEO (a Zukerburg type character) introduces the 9.5 update, which includes emotion sensors. When you are sad, it automatically shows you pictures of cats. So yes, I do. Edit: Here is the video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jTHBBkillM&t=96s (My bad it was the 14.3 update and dogs riding chickens)

Another exploration of this theme was in an episode of Doctor Who (Smile) which features a colony with nanobots that are optimized for happiness, with disastrous results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_(Doctor_Who) - "The Vardy were programmed to help construct and operate the colony and make the colonists happy, monitoring the emotional state of the colonists through the emotion badges and avatars. When one of the flight crew died of natural causes, it created grief among the crew, something the avatars were not programmed to register. The Vardy took this as a sign of disease and killed those who displayed unhappiness. This created a "grief tsunami" which rapidly wiped out the flight crew, and will likely wipe out the waking colonists when they discover what happened."
Post reply on HN