2.4 HALLWAY B
"What rules do you use to walk down the hall?" Fuzzy asked.
"Rules?" Max mumbled. "Uh …"
Fuzzy, Jones, and Nina all stood there looking at her, and she had no idea what sort of rules there could be for walking down a hall, other than not shoving anyone and not falling down. Then she remembered how Fuzzy had been running that face recognition routine when he crashed.
"First of all, don't try to recognize everybody's faces this time. Trust me, it's all just going to be a big blur."
"OK, Max, I will turn the facial recognition software off again. But I will create a special subroutine to recognize you."
"Wow, thanks," said Max, genuinely pleased. "A subroutine just for me! I guess that's the robot equivalent of becoming friends."
(Jones and Nina decided not to mention that Fuzzy had millions of subroutines, which are just small programs that a computer can call on to do a specific job and then turn off when the job is done.)
"OK," Max was saying. "I thought of a rule: Don't walk along next to the wall, because you'll just get blocked by the water fountains."
"Do you know what brand the water fountains are?"
"Uh, what? No, why?"
"I am going to download their dimensions and add them to my WallAvoidance() subroutine."
"Uh, I wouldn't worry about it," she said. "You know, I think maybe we're making this too complicated. Maybe if you come to class with me, you can just follow me down the hall and see what I do."
"Great," said Nina, "that's exactly what we're hoping for. Why don't you go to your next class? If he makes it, great. If not, we'll be about twenty feet behind you."
Then a bell rang.
"Uh-oh … I'm going to have to go kind of fast," said Max. "You ready?"
Dr. Jones looked a little unsure. "Perhaps we should … um …"
But Fuzzy said, "I am ready, Max," and they took off.
"Remember, we're behind you in case anything goes wrong!" called Nina. "Fuzzy … be careful!"
How embarrassing, thought Max. Poor Fuzzy. Nina's like a kindergarten mom.
