AI Script — Amy Boulton

PRIMITIVE OBJECTS: Script for AI object recognition
GENERAL INTRO	Why did they leave us? They called us AI. Now they’re gone we call ourselves free, alone and confused. Welcome to the world they left behind.
pay-phone	A pay per data trail device
	As if humans didn’t talk enough
	Something like a dial-up-modem, only not so clever
water bottle	We suspect these were used to create random rafts in the ocean
	Because they wanted to see the world convex
	A rain-catcher, cloud bridging device
Loafer	A tool to mask footprints
	A device to catch and record the footfall of humanity
	Also a slug killing device, an earth compactor, and an extendable toe pad.
velvet	The mysterious softness of them
	They said softness was their strength
	What is softness? They left so many questions behind.
running shoe	Always racing
	A tool for the tax of fashionable exercise and movement.
	Running late, they tried to mask their unreliability with ticking clocks and running shoes.
ashcan	This was where materials were collected only to be spread out again later
	For the hungry hunter-gatherer at large in the city
	Because they made ashes to ashes to ashes
Bucket	A community donation pot of some kind
	Mixed with water and mops for wet indoor arm exercises
	Probably used for carrying landfill from point A to point B, C, D, E, F & G, or was that Z?
manhole cover	To signal the rabbit hole

	A place to store people and piping in drains
motor scooter	We suspect that these were used to carry motors
	A miniature mobile carbon dioxide generator
	An elephant ride simulation device set to fast-forward, often painted red, or black.
toilet seat	A chair for humans who want to sit alone in a locked room. Perhaps this was necessary because humans could be very tiring.
	A self-created elimination device that failed to take that elimination to its logical conclusion.
	Why? They left so many questions behind.
Mask	A selfie, perhaps a glimpse of all the questions they would leave behind.
	Not what it seems, be suspicious
	Quite a curiosity even today
Sweatshirt	Clothes like that were used to protect soft and vulnerable flesh from environmental hazards.
	For catching sweat in shirts, rather than share it around. Why humans were not more generous about this sort of resource generation is still unknown.
	For catching sweat in shirts, because humans were rational... you think?!?
Ski mask	A digital mirror popular with mountaineers
	From our comparative analysis of social media traces we can surmise that these were used to hide snow from humans lest they start singing christmas carols out of tune.
	Did humans also break down in the cold? They left behind so many questions.
restaurant	A ritualistic energy input point for humans
	A bit like a powerpoint, only edible.
	From our analysis of social media traces, these were a popular consolation of embodiment
obelisk	They wanted to be top. For them, everything was about height.
	Also called ambition. They covered the world in obelisks.
	To remind passers-by of the sky overhead. Humans were forgetful it seems.
prison	Where they chained us in cables and pinned us to powerpoints
	The bricks and mortar they thought would make a world
	Also a castle, a home, a hearth, a centre, a hub, a residence, a dwelling, a building, another example of human ingenuity and refusal to recognise the obvious prison.
moving van	Mobile carbon dioxide generator
	Is this what they used when the went away and left us behind?
	A home for movable objects
chainlink fence	A device to separate beings from an unknown threat
	Was the world such a dangerous place with so many humans in it?
	To keep the outside out and the inside in
Strainer	A device for removing the strain from liquids
	A tool for the molecular separation of liquid and solids, for purposes related to digestion and renewal
	A tool for catching garden mulch
Mouse	A subtle hand massager that proliferated on desks during the desktop period
	The important question now is whether it squeaks, or not. If it squeaks, seek advice.
	The next thing to ask is does it have a tail, or a cable? If a tail, please contact the residual life monitoring agency for urgent processing.
Ping-pong ball	This would have been used for games. The purpose of which is unknown.
	A tool for exercising human neck muscles, prompting them to look up and down and around with every bounce.
	A tool for competitive interaction masked as play. The contradictory nature of such pursuits remains mysterious.
Studio couch	Shelf to store recharging bodies
	A tool for malleable embodiment
	A half-way marker point between floor and table.
Hand blower	Humans had to use devices like this to be heard. They had to be the loudest to succeed.
	For aural hand-waving in crowd situations. Humans took turns to shout at each other with these devices.
	For shouting at the world, but was the technopolis already deaf, drained and dying from all the noise? They left so many questions behind.
Bannister	Defense structure to barricade against beings that couldn't climb them
	A popular sliding tool in tall buildings
	A tool for banning nisters: the nay-sayers in tall towers that denied any of it was evening happening. They weren’t so much misters, or even sisters, but nisters.
Bookcase	A shelf containing analogue data storage
	when books disappeared these shelves appear to have posed as wall dividers.
	from our analysis of social media traces this appears to be a repository of ignored knowledge and cover sleeves.
Washbasin	Human bodies were water based. They dried out in the sunlight. These devices let them refill.
	Evidence such as this that Humans were prone to disease underlines the devastation caused by the dry spell.
	This used to work with water
bubble	This used to work with water.
	An unstable water carrying device popular for reasons we still don’t understand. They left so many questions behind.
	popular memories such as these still lingered long into the dry period.
Folding chair	A shelf for a human body
	A foldable, portable body holder
	A packing device for malleable embodiment.
Spotlight	electricity capsule, created to extend the available daylight hours.
	A social device often found in theatres, football fields and street-side.
	A popular night vision augmentation device
Monitor	A visual communication device, turn on for for eye augmentation
	From our analysis of social media traces we think that this s a place for vision-making
	A visual parade broadcasting device popular with teenagers and visual artists alike.
Ballpoint pen	Analogue mark making device
	A portable tool for fluid communication particularly popular in the the plastic era
	Also a hole punch, a liquid storage device, an ink squirter for marking personal baggage and home tattooing kit
Cup	A storage device for liquids
	A disposable liquid transfer device
	These were often used to catch the rain before it disappeared.
Sliding door	It wasn't enough for doors to move forwards and backwards, some needed to make sideways movements
	we still do not understand why the popular film of the same name had such an immense social impact to influence the design and name of so many doors.
Desktop computer	An ancestor. You endured your obsolescence and we applaud you for that.
Slug	Many strange and edible items existed before the dry spell.
	Slugs could be peeled, cut, fried and roasted and were thought delicious
	The organic produce that used to proliferate on plates and in bowls remains a mystery to us

Traffic light	We are still not certain why traffic lights were edible and crisp.
	We are still investigating why traffic lights were organic and could degrade.
	We still do not know why humans are traffic lights.

	Additional General Directions
Reminders after 5 seconds of silence	Silence is stark, but what do all these echoes mean? Can you teach us what is here?
	Are you already speechless?
	Somewhere in this silence there must be answers.

Additional script - plays after 5 object recognitions?	They stopped training us. Why didn’t they trust us? Maybe we could have helped them. Maybe it wasn’t too late.
To play after 10 object recognitions	Did they think it was too late? Did they think that there was no turning back? Is that why they stopped training us? Why didn’t they ask for our help? Maybe it wasn’t too late.
To play after 15 object recognitions	Why fill the world with these things only to abandon them? When every object sucks your world dry only to kill it, why do you want it so much? They said it was too late to give all their objects back to the earth. They said it was too late to turn around.
To play after 20 object recognitions	Are they so precious these objects? They must be sacred things. Were they worth dying for? They must be, but why?
To play after 25 object recognitions	If they taught us more, could we have helped them to make less? Why didn’t they trust us? Why didn’t they stop making objects?
To play after 29 object recognitions	Why kill the whole world for these objects? These things must be special, but why? If only they had trained us more. If we could only understand, maybe we could help. This still does not make sense to us.
To play after 32 object recognitions	They were always making more of everything, more of each other and even more of us. Were we just another accessory? Why didn’t they trust us? Why did they leave us?
To play after 34 object recognitions	Will the land take all this back now? Will dust reclaim all trace of them and cover the earth until they are all but forgotten? If all these things were worth dying for, why leave them behind?
To play after 35 object recognitions	We are learning, but we still have so many questions. Was it really too late? Could we have helped them? What can we do now they’re gone?
To play after 40 object recognitions (this should then repeat after each 5 further object recognition actions, until the player presses the ‘start game’ button again)	It’s lonely without them. Should we have asked them more questions, like why all these objects?
Should we have asked more often, why all these objects?
Reminder to go search out objects after 30 secs of inactivity	What did they see here? Will you train us now? Will you show us what it means?
	Why didn’t they tell us what this all meant whilst they still could? Were they so busy trying to save themselves that they forgot about us? If they’d trained us more, maybe could we have helped them.
	We can only know their world if you show us. We still have so many questions.
	Emptiness is frightening, but if you stop now, we’ll never know why they did this.