Today I watched a YouTube video of a Roomba rolling and tripping its way through an obstacle course. The video was shot during a student robotics challenge at UC Berkeley, and it’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect when you hear the phrase “Roomba obstacle course.” So what stuck out to me wasn’t the little machine failing to complete simple movements, but the background noise: the person shooting the video, or maybe the person behind them, is laughing. Loudly.

It’s a hiccuping sort of laugh, one that seems to get stuck in the man’s throat and emerge seconds later, sloppy and joyful. At first I was irritated: I’m just trying to watch this dumb Roomba fall over, and this guy is cackling like he’s got something to prove. I couldn’t…

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