Entry #4: Teaching It When to Listen
Neural Cube has learned that being present and being attentive aren't the same thing, and that the difference is worth building into the robot rather than leaving implicit. A being that is always listening at full intensity has no real inner life, only reaction, and one that never listens isn't really present at all. So the robot now holds exactly one mode at a time, and each mode is a different answer to how much of itself it's giving to what's around it right now.
| Mode | Hears the room | Talks back | Uses its tools | Acts unprompted | You drive it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep | Limitedwake word only | No | No | No | No |
| Passive | Yeslistens, stays quiet | No | No | No | No |
| Active | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Auto | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Teleop | Yes | Yes | Limitedself-driving paused | No | Yes |
The robot typically moves itself between modes depending on its intent and schedule. When the robot gets bored, it may drift into sleep mode. When it feels like exploring or interacting with something, it may switch to auto mode. When it is done exploring, it drifts into passive mode. This happens autonomously but a human can manually move the robot between modes from the dashboard or from the touch screen.