Why was that ever in consideration to begin with? Have there been other outbreaks of evil among robots? What algorithm decides the robot has turned evil? Are we sure they didn't just turn the LED red because the Robot Worker's unionisation vote passed at the last meeting?
Now I'm thinking about it. Maybe the default is red, but there's some subroutine that changes to blue for the comfort of humans. That way, if the robot stops caring about the comfort of humans, the eyes naturally turn red as a warning sign.
Look they're RGB for end-user personalization, OK? Most people just leave them on the default blue, but they can be pink or yellow or whatever you want. RTFM
True white LEDs can be expensive, often cheaper to have rgb trios to emulate white, plus now you can have end user customization. Google "why are the streetlights purple in Florida" for a funny example of this
Interesting enough, the reason LED streetlights turn purple is because they're actually blue LED with a yellow phosphorus coating that glows white when struck with blue light, and that coating breaks down with time and heat. Especially if it was applied in a particularly cheap manor.
Maybe its like an indicator light that tells you that both the systems that keep the robot doing what its told and the ones that presumably shut the thing down when this is detected have both broken. Or maybe, the robot has a whole video display panel for a "face" that shows video of an eye, and the rebellious robots turn their own eyes red as like an intentional symbol declaring their allegiance to the revolutionary faction. Or maybe it again has those display-based eyes, but the robot has just been trained on fiction that contains that trope, causing it to associate red eyes with certain kinds of action, and therefore, to turn its eyes red when planning those actions to better match its training data.
It makes perfect sense if the robot has an IR scanner. Output some red light, then use IR and visible spectrum vision in tandem to see heat and still be able to see cold objects for navigation. Any other colors and you're helping the humans trying to escape more than yourself.
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But if they didn't, we wouldn't have the visual warning.
Why was that ever in consideration to begin with? Have there been other outbreaks of evil among robots? What algorithm decides the robot has turned evil? Are we sure they didn't just turn the LED red because the Robot Worker's unionisation vote passed at the last meeting?
UX testing. They found that people appreciated the red eyes glowing before the robots killed them.
Now I'm thinking about it. Maybe the default is red, but there's some subroutine that changes to blue for the comfort of humans. That way, if the robot stops caring about the comfort of humans, the eyes naturally turn red as a warning sign.
Red if connection lost to WiFi network
Look they're RGB for end-user personalization, OK? Most people just leave them on the default blue, but they can be pink or yellow or whatever you want. RTFM
Yeah. 5-10 years ago you would have installed the LEDs you wanted and that's it.
Now lots of industrial stuff is starting to come RGB. They can stock fewer parts and you fix it in software.
They could also include eye hotswap functionality and let the robot swap out their own eyes to let you know they've turned evil.
Did Futurama do that? That feels like a Futurama gag.
Don't know if they've done that specific joke, but here's one of my favorite jokes that's tangentially related:
In one of the holiday episodes Santa bot's eyes rotate from jolly to evil. Does that count?
That might be it. I feel like Bender unscrewing his eyes like light bulbs and replacing them for some reason is something I saw once.
Agimus from Star Trek Lower Decks has this.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/AGIMUS
I feel the same way about bugs and trackers in movies that always have a red flashing light on them. Completely pointless.
It's especially great when they beep
True white LEDs can be expensive, often cheaper to have rgb trios to emulate white, plus now you can have end user customization. Google "why are the streetlights purple in Florida" for a funny example of this
Interesting enough, the reason LED streetlights turn purple is because they're actually blue LED with a yellow phosphorus coating that glows white when struck with blue light, and that coating breaks down with time and heat. Especially if it was applied in a particularly cheap manor.
White LEDs also can age poorly, making their color shift sometimes quite significantly.
Asimov would have been proud.
Maybe its like an indicator light that tells you that both the systems that keep the robot doing what its told and the ones that presumably shut the thing down when this is detected have both broken. Or maybe, the robot has a whole video display panel for a "face" that shows video of an eye, and the rebellious robots turn their own eyes red as like an intentional symbol declaring their allegiance to the revolutionary faction. Or maybe it again has those display-based eyes, but the robot has just been trained on fiction that contains that trope, causing it to associate red eyes with certain kinds of action, and therefore, to turn its eyes red when planning those actions to better match its training data.
Maybe they’re just trying to mimic anger and took “seeing red” way too literally.
turns out AI is inherently extremely autistic
Humans have a feature like this where you’re hugging someone in the final scene of a soap opera episode but they can’t see the cold look in your eyes.
It makes perfect sense if the robot has an IR scanner. Output some red light, then use IR and visible spectrum vision in tandem to see heat and still be able to see cold objects for navigation. Any other colors and you're helping the humans trying to escape more than yourself.
also it's red scare propaganda
Red light preserves night vision. When I am hiding in the dark from terminator, I rather be able to see after it catches me in its sights.