The unhappier you are, the more ice cream you get
|
Dr. Whippy, had people queue despite the wet wet weather in the streets of Linz during ars electronica. The machine proffers soft scoop ice cream according to the perceived unhappiness level of the customer.
"Employing voice stress analysis of the user’s answers to specific questions, varying degrees of unhappiness are measured and the counteractive quantity of ice cream is dispensed: The more unhappy you are, the more ice cream you need."
The project, developed by Demitrios Kargotis, was partly funded by the Royal College of Art-Platform 11. Technical Assistance: Bjorn Franke. Images courtesy of Noam Toran. A few more taken in Linz. |
Sponsored by:
27 Comments:
That's a really neat idea. I'm definitely a fan.
That is interesting, but if you're happy and you get a small amount of ice cream, wouldn't that make you unhappy..?
oooo yum yum yum! perfect solution for manic depressives
What if I'm overweight and feeling sad about being overweight? Clearly this machine will not help me in the long run.
Soo....I guess this proves that the more unhappy you are, the fatter you get?
Not unless you put in fat free ice cream.
This is interesting but I definitely fail to see how this is going to help anyone.
It's a nutrimatic machine! Does it dispense something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike ice cream?
Melissa -- I'll have to think about this.
[co-opting Infinite Improbability Drive computer in 3... 2... 1...]
I love it! It's totally poetic. If you're happy and you get a small amount of ice cream, it's not going to make you unhappy, because you're already happy - and now you know it so, um, clap your hands, ha : )
Ars Electronica is very keen on techie gimmicks and this is another perfect example of that. They seem to prefer this kind of work than the conceptual type. The 'Remote Control Skates', a previous entry, is another example of Ars Electronica showing. How pathetic...
I love it. Genius.
"That is interesting, but if you're happy and you get a small amount of ice cream, wouldn't that make you unhappy..?"
Which came first the happiness or the icecream...
Gee. Using food as an emotional manipulator. Did Weight Watchers fund the research of this project, only to cause more people to join their program in the end because they eat to make themselves happy? Stressed you haven't lost any weight recently because you've been starving yourself and busting your ass at the gym. Don't worry, be happy and have an extra helping of ice cream!!! *rolls eyes* Thanks. Good technology to help in other areas, but a frou-frou application of good technology. Let's use it to figure out if someone is going to go postal on an office or school and save lives instead of getting fatter.
Welllll i wonder, person using this machine can easily cheat to get bigger ice cream and be even more happy, happiness for sale.
What happens if an emo uses this ?
The machine would have to turn itself inside out to dispense enough icecream.
Perhaps it would have been more usefull to attach scales to it instead. The less you weigh the more icecream you get.
Sounds like the perfect solution for the average PMSing women. :)
I think this is what public policy makers call a 'peverse incentive':
A: What do you want Mr President?
B: More happiness in the world. This is why we've invented this machine.
A: What does this machine do Mr President?
B: The more unhappy it thinks you are, the more ice-cream it dishes out
A: Do people like ice-cream Mr President?
B: Generally, yes, they do
A: Does ice-cream make people happy?
B: Hmmm...let's just say 'yea', and avoid the argument about pleasure vs. happiness.
A: So the less happy people are, the more ice cream they get. And the happier this makes them.
B: Correct
A: So you're giving people an incentive to be unhappy in order to raise their levels of happiness?
B: Errr...yea
A: And what does this suggest?
B: That we are giving people a reasons to be unhappy.
A: For what reason?
B: To make them happier
Etc, etc. Just a thought. None of this takes away from the fact that this is a great idea, I'm just whiling away my lunch-break.
D
So the more uhappy you are the more ice cream it gives you and the fatter you get so the more unhappy you get so the more ice cream you get...
wonderful, is this an AMerican invention?
Well, it's a nice idea, but if someone wants a lot of ice cream .. And people who believe they are too fat also won't be happy when they get even more ice cream ...
a facinating idea...even if a vicious circle of unhappy...eat ice cream...fat...even more unhappy does ensue. people who are looking to a machine that dispenses ice cream (however wonderfull)to gauge their happiness either are not that un happy or have tried everything else....im in love with it
Brilliant! As Eric Medlen said, "Nobody can be unhappy when they're eating ice cream."
I wonder if they would make a sex machine like that
What happens if you're realy, realy depressed? Will the ice cream just not stop flowing?
Can they do this for Marijuana? I would be really really unhappy if this machine would dish out marijuana! And I would be overjoyed while consuming! But then when it was gone, I would be very unhappy again.
Think of it as a training tool for learning
how to fool biometric scanners. Once you
get it figured out, you can get whatever
amount of ice cream you want. This should
be popular with aspiring actresses...
i am generally a very happy person, but i am lactose intolerant. so that won't help me at all. maybe you should more ice cream if youre sad because ice cream is supposed to make you happy.