Why would robots use verbal communication?
Robots (intelligent machines using some form of artificial intelligence), are central to the plot in a snippet I'm working on. These robots do not have to interact with humans on a regular basis: maybe once or twice a year for checkups.
Why would these robots use a spoken language as opposed to a quicker, more efficient data transfer method?
Background:
Robots designed by humans independently work on clearing waste in high-radiation areas. They return to civilization once or twice a year to be inspected and restored to be able to continue working.
Robots are, of course, considered no more than cheap labor, although they have an advanced form of artificial intelligence with thought processes similar to ours.
These robots are perfectly capable of communicating with each other through wireless means, yet they continue to communicate using a dialect of English.
Considerations:
As I forgot to mention when first posting this question, these robots have the ability to 'evolve' to change their behavior. This could eventually result in them having radically different behavior from the original programming.
This is part of the reason they are reset every year.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/36510. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
Networks go out sometimes, or can be jammed. This might be particularly problematic in high-radiation environments. See also this answer for reasons they might not be available. Voice communication always works, so long as the recipient is within range, there isn't too much background noise, and there's enough atmosphere. (I'm assuming from the way the question is asked that voice communication is in fact possible in your environment.)
Because they have to communicate with humans occasionally they have to be programmed for voice. I suspect that your robots do actually do much of their inter-robot interactions digitally where possible, unless they have been programmed not to, but they have voice to fall back on.
A comment (h/t vsz) points out that even if they're using audio communication, it's possible to get better compression a la R2D2. So that's something to think about; if you want them to specifically be using spoken English as opposed to just sound, you'll need a reason for that kind of compression to not work.
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