Skip to main content

Tiny child mistakes broken water heater for a robot

Tiny child mistakes broken water heater for a robot

/

I, wobot

Share this story

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Humans are suckers when it comes to anthropomorphizing and, subsequently, caring for robots. Some of us want to love robots so badly that we wind up shedding tears over a hunk of metal that went hurtling through space millions of miles away. But love is messy and blind, and so often we look past a cold, rigid truth like “that robot is, in fact, just a broken water heater.”

That’s the case in the radioactively adorable video seen above, which is titled “Rayna meets a "robot”.” It’s early, but it’s a sure viral hit, and it also just so happens my pick for Best Short Film at the 2018 Oscars. (That is, if the Academy doesn’t find some obnoxious way of disqualifying it in the first place. My guess is the downfall will be that errant punctuation.) It’s got just about everything you could hope for in a 24-second clip: a darling main character (she calls it “wobot!”), wonderful rising action, and just the right amount of existential dread.

Kids today are going to know a world more full of robots than any of us old saps like me can imagine. The real question is: will they still love wobots when wobots start taking our jobs?