Computing That Invokes Emotions of It’s Own, Relates to Ours

So. Following the utopicomp (sorry, there it is) ideal of calm computing we’re gonna have to be subtle with this if we’re going anywhere with it, right? Less is more work. We should consider the potential issue of uncanny valley as applied to behaviour and may choose to sidestep it entirely. We could draw inspiration from things like Apple’s design of the sleep light on the Macbook Pro which is so obviously designed to pulsate at the same rate as its breathing would be (if it had lungs) whilst it’s asleep. It’s just enough that it gives the machine a feeling of sentience but what would happen if that speed was ever so slightly increased or decreased based on certain conditions? Would it give the impression that something is wrong? I reckon it might not immediately, but once you get to know the device and its personality you’d be used to its normal behaviour and then really notice when it starts behaving differently. Being a bit offish with you maybe. I’m pretty sure people already do this with computers when their operating system starts to get a bit sluggish or glitchy – I know I do – but maybe we could play with that a bit.