Cinderella On Automatice Pilot, 7-28-22

We were forewarned years ago in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” when Hal, the robot brain of Spaceship Discovery, went berserk.  Since then I, for one, have  been a bit leery of “intelligent machines,” especially when I factor in their creation by humans of unknown character and intention.

Despite all, of couurse, I have welcomed Cinderella into my home and have gladly turned over my floors and carpets to her care.  UNDER MY DIRECTION.  And there you have the crux of my current problem (and my alarming thoughts of Hal.)  Cinderella seems to have gone rogue.

I first noticed a change in her behavior yesterday.  Since I have dismissed my landline with its attendant (read: unreliable) internet connection, I can no longer communicate with Cinderella via my cell phone app.  Nor can I give her specific instructions like “clean the living room.”  But, if I physically carry her to a desired destination and press her “CLEAN” button, she gets to work.

Somehow, she knows to clean just the room where she is placed and, when she is through, she returns to the spot where I placed her and stops.  This is not new behavior.  She did this before when we didn’t have internet service (which was often.)

Sleeping Cinderella 7-29-22

But yesterday, when I physically returned her to her Home Base, she emptied her bin, rested a few minutes, and then went into the library and began cleaning.  On her own.  And that time she returned clear to Home Base.  On her own.

She continued that behavior until I turned out the lights and went to bed.  (Her creators warned from the get-go that she would need “some” light to operate, so I expected her bizarre behavior to stop.)  But… at midnight I was awakened by the sound of Cinderella on the move.  In the dark.  To say it was creepy is an understatment-to-the-max.

This morning I found her, apparently exhausted, sound asleep under a chair in the library.  I haven’t moved her yet…
And I can’t help but wonder if Mrs. Crouch is somehow involved.