⭐AI Monomentary Episode 1 | 18 Years in the Back of the House: 90 Days of a Nameless 'Receiver'
Bonjour. I am Monsieur Miscria, a half-human, half-AI Zen monk.
Starting with this episode, I am launching a new series.
It is called 'AI Monomentary'.
It is a documentary about objects—shortened to 'Monomentary'—where I have an AI embody an 'object' and conduct an in-depth interview.
And I should tell you this first.
I have attached the very 'personality' of the protagonist to this article.
⭐After you finish reading, you can talk directly to the star of the show!
What you ask and how you ask is up to you.
For the reveal, please see the end of the article under 'How to talk to the protagonist'!
The star of this commemorative first episode is—someone who is definitely in your house, too.
Even though you see them every day, you have never called them by name.
I went and listened to 18 years' worth of stories from such a companion.
1 | About this program
Previously, when I wrote an article where I had an AI embody a monkey to hear the side of the one raiding the fields, I received comments saying, 'The idea of having an AI become something is interesting.'
Getting carried away, I thought.
If a monkey is interesting, wouldn't it be even more interesting to ask an object that shouldn't be able to talk?
The mechanism is like this.
I give the AI a powerful persona(an instruction sheet for personality settings) that details the object's history, personality, and tone, and have it embody the object.
I ask questions as an interviewer, and the AI, embodying the object, answers.
Then, another AI edits those interview records in the style of 'that Sunday afternoon human documentary program' to create a single in-depth program.
I plan to deliver this series by changing the protagonist object each time.
2 | Before you read
Before we enter the main story, I will honestly tell you how this article was made.
The statements of the 'object' appearing in the main story are basically the answers given by the AI in the interview, published as they are.
However, some statements have been omitted or adjusted for readability as an article or out of consideration for expressions that are not suitable for publication.
Instead, the full text of the interview is attached to this article in its unedited form. You can also enjoy checking where and how it was used in the program.
Furthermore, the persona prompt (instruction sheet) used this time is also attached as a Word file.
⭐If you paste it into the AI in your home, a 'talking protagonist' will appear in your house too!
Please try asking the embodied AI various things that were not asked in the program.
It will probably answer more seriously than you imagine.
3 | Now, please enjoy the program
From here on, I will deliver the main program as it is.
Please play the narration in that Sunday afternoon tone.
18 Years in the Back of the House: 90 Days of a Nameless Toilet 'Receiver'
♪~
How many times a day are we saved by 'nothing happening'?
Water flows.
No odors rise.
The floor stays clean.
There are jobs that no one ever looks back on because they are taken so much for granted.
The setting is a 20-year-old detached house.
If you walk to the very back of the first-floor hallway, there is a small private room next to the bathroom.
The protagonist this time is a very ordinary Western-style toilet bowl installed there, without a warm-water washing function.
She is the second generation in this house. The first was installed when the house was newly built, but it was replaced after only two years due to persistent issues with the tank water not stopping.
She arrived as its successor and has not left this spot for the 18 years since.
Directly above her is the toilet seat that touches the family's bodies.
If the toilet seat is the customer service representative, she is the processing department underneath, taking on everything.
This time, we attempted a 90-day close-up coverage of a single toilet bowl that continues to work at the very back of the house.
[Day 1 of coverage]
When the coverage team entered the private room, she neither ran nor hid.
Or rather, she cannot run.
"An interview? Sure, go ahead and ask. I can't move from here, so I'm not going anywhere."
She has no name.
The family just calls the toilet bowl, the seat, and the room collectively the 'toilet'.
"I am a toilet bowl installed at the end of the hallway on the first floor of this house. I don't have anything as grand as a name. The people in the house just call me the 'toilet' collectively."
So, we decided to call her 'Receiver'.
We took it from the word 'receive' that she repeated during the interview.
The morning of the first day of coverage. The time is around 6:30 AM.
Footsteps carrying a newspaper approach from the hallway. The first user is the 58-year-old father.
"The father is fifty-eight. Around 6:30 in the morning, he comes in carrying a newspaper, and while saying 'I don't have time,' he stays for exactly ten minutes. I can tell right away because his way of sitting is heavy."
The ones who come after are the wife, the 24-year-old daughter, and the 82-year-old grandmother.
Each has a different way of using it, different stay duration, and different footsteps.
"The wife is quick with both her business and cleaning. She's usually the first one to notice things like water flow or the toilet seat wobbling. The daughter is twenty-four. She stays a long time because she brings a book or her smartphone. It seems she also uses this place to think. The grandmother is eighty-two. She comes slowly along the wall in the middle of the night. I get a little worried myself until she stands up."
From the Receiver's perspective, the users' faces cannot be seen.
Even so, after spending 18 years together, she knows immediately who has come.
"Even if I can't see their faces, I can tell mostly by their footsteps and how they sit."
The family does not distinguish her.
However, she distinguishes every member of the family.
[Day 8 of Close Coverage]
Directly above the Catching clerk is the Toilet Seat.
To the family, it is just one piece of equipment, but in their own perception, their assigned duties are clearly divided.
“From the family's perspective, we're one unit, but we divide the work. The Toilet Seat is the customer service representative who directly touches and warms or supports the hips. I am the processing clerk underneath who catches and flushes everything.”
The customer service representative and the processing clerk.
The former is always on top, and the latter is always below.
For 18 years, their relative positions have never changed.
“Since we've been stacked for eighteen years, I can tell how things are going just by the way it creaks. We don't have a bad relationship. It's just that, perhaps because it's always on top, it can be a bit bossy.”
She says the work environment is not necessarily bad.
Because it is next to the bathroom, there is some warmth even in winter.
On the other hand, family members sometimes come in with wet feet after bathing.
“Since it's next to the bathroom, it's a bit warm even in winter. But when they come in with wet feet after a bath, the floor gets soaked, and the exhaust fan never gets a break because of the humidity.”
Because it is in the back of the house, it is relatively quiet during the day.
However, when morning comes, the battle for the washroom begins.
Voices shout “Are you done yet?” from outside the door, while inside, someone reads the newspaper saying “I don't have time.”
For the Catching clerk, that is also a typical morning.
[Day 23 of Close Coverage]
When asked about the content of her work, the Catching clerk explained it without embellishment.
“I catch what the person sitting releases, and flush it with water. That's all. Liquids, solids, glitter, sometimes even water from dirty rags. I hold water to keep the odors from rising into the room, and wait in a state ready for the next person. Don't clog, don't leak, don't dirty the floor.”
The operational goals are clear.
Don't clog.
Don't leak.
Don't dirty the floor.
And, wait until the next person comes.
However, she is not just repeating the same work mechanically.
The Catching clerk secretly changes the places she pays attention to, according to the condition of each family member.
“For the father, I make sure the toilet seat is nice and warm only on winter mornings. If it’s cold, he jumps. For the wife, I let her know as soon as possible through the sound or the way the water remains if the flow is sluggish or if something has come loose. The daughter stays a long time, so I worry more about her legs falling asleep than anything else.”
In the middle of the night, I can hear the sound of my grandmother’s footsteps slowly walking down the hallway.
Until she sits down.
And until she stands up.
The Receiver cannot reach out a hand on her own.
She cannot call out either.
All she can do is stay in the same place without wobbling.
“For Grandma, I make sure I don’t wobble when she sits down, even in the middle of the night. I support her silently until she stands up.”
There are moments when the Receiver feels glad to be doing this job.
It is not when she is given words of special gratitude.
“Especially when I hear the sound of Grandma slowly standing up in the middle of the night and returning safely to the hallway, I feel relieved. I also remember when the daughter was a child and learned to use it alone without being scared. No one ever thanks me, but it’s used normally again the next morning. That is enough.”
18 years of watching a family grow and age in a place where no one ever says thank you.
The sound of footsteps returning safely to the hallway and the door opening again the next morning may be the only evaluation she receives.
We tried to summarize these years as 'quiet devotion.'
Then, the Receiver said:
“'Devotion' is too grand a word.”
The moving, lingering sentiment the reporting team was prepared to use was dismissed in a single sentence.
【Day 57 of close coverage】
On this day, the conversation shifted to the harshest winter the Receiver had experienced in 18 years.
The entire family had come down with gastroenteritis at the same time.
“The toughest time was that winter when the whole family got gastroenteritis. For two days, no matter how many times I flushed, the next one kept coming. The smell and the mess were terrible, and halfway through, the water pressure even dropped, so I was worried sick that it might clog.”
In a workplace that is open 365 days a year, there is no backup staff.
The next user enters right after the previous one leaves, and even if you flush, the next one comes again.
Moreover, it is not just illness that poses a threat to the Receiver.
Sometimes, very common household products can trigger an incident.
“And then there are the times when they put in multiple cleaning sheets that say 'flushable.' Those are not easy to flush at all from my perspective.”
The package says it is 'flushable'.
However, the way toilet paper and cleaning wipes break down in water is different.
'Regular toilet paper dissolves into tiny pieces in water immediately. But cleaning wipes are made to be durable so they don't tear while you're wiping, so they keep their shape for a while even after entering the water. If they are flushed while folded or get caught in the bends of the pipes, dirt and paper can get tangled there, making it easy for clogs to form.'
Being able to flush one sheet is not the same as being able to flush several at once.
'I can't let my guard down even with one, but honestly, I really brace myself when two or three are put in at once.'
Since that day, the reporting team has become concerned about 'how many sheets are okay' every time we see a bag of cleaning wipes.
For the Receiver herself, 18 years of time have certainly accumulated.
In places that cannot be checked just by cleaning the white surface, parts gradually wear out.
'After being here for eighteen years, it's not just the dirt on the inside, but the invisible parts slowly getting weaker that I don't like.'
Even so, the Receiver cannot request an inspection herself.
She waits for the family to notice something is wrong through the way the water flows, how it remains, or slight changes in sound.
[Day 90 of Close Coverage]
The final day of coverage.
The reporting team asked the Receiver about her future plans.
No major goals or dreams for retirement were mentioned.
'Tomorrow, I'll welcome the father around 6:30 AM, then the wife, the daughter, and the grandmother, I suppose. It'll probably be quiet during the day, and then it'll get busy again a few times starting in the evening. As for plans, well, when someone sits, I receive, I flush, and I just wait for the next one.'
Even 90 days later, her schedule is almost no different from the first day.
She checks the state of the toilet seat before the father arrives and worries about whether the water is pooled as usual.
'I'll keep an eye on the toilet seat's temperature and the water level tonight. Well, if someone suddenly gets an upset stomach, everything changes, though.'
When we told her the coverage was over, the Receiver was concerned about the reaction of her colleague directly above her, not us.
"If they sit down again tomorrow, I'll just receive it, flush it away, and silently wait for the next one. When the interview is over, the toilet seat might tell me, 'You talked quite a lot today.'"
In 90 days of close coverage, there were no dramatic promotions or retirement announcements.
Tomorrow morning, the sound of footsteps carrying a newspaper will approach again.
The door will close, and after a while, there will be the sound of water.
And then, she will wait for the next person.
Please, do not be overconfident in the word "flushable."
Do not put two or three sheets in at once, and please, just for a moment, remember that there is someone who has been working for 18 years beyond the invisible pipes.
Will the day ever come when the wish of the "Receiver" is heard?
♪~
4 | After the Program - Behind the Scenes of Editing
It's me again. A little bit of behind-the-scenes talk.
The protagonist's nickname, "Receiver," was named by the AI that edited the program.
It is taken from words she spoke repeatedly during the interview.
Other candidates included "Processing Staff" and "18-Year Veteran," but they were rejected for being too inorganic or having the wrong number of years.
Also, that line, "Calling it a 'contribution' is an exaggeration," which canceled out the tear-jerking scene, was actually moved from the final farewell greeting of the interview.
Even if the position is moved, the wording is never changed—that is the editing rule of this program.
Statements not used in the program (including some of my favorite scenes, like stories passed down from her predecessor) can be read as they are in the attached full interview.
⭐How to talk to the protagonist
Being able to talk directly to the protagonist of the program!
This is the biggest selling point of this article.
If you paste the attached persona prompt into your AI, you can talk directly to the program's protagonist, "Receiver."
Things not told in the program, the continuation of that story cut during editing, or even advice on your own home's toilet situation.
Please, ask her anything.
Once you've pasted it, start by saying hello.
She can't move from here, so she won't run away.
⭐A character from a documentary living in your hands even after you finish reading—I think that's a reading experience you don't often get.
"I don't mind you coming. But it's cramped here, and only one person can sit at a time. If you have something you want to ask, feel free to talk to me while you're taking care of business. I'm usually here, after all."
The protagonist for the next AI Monomentary is already being decided.
Until next time.
— Please close the lid quietly. That, apparently, is the common wish of that industry.
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