When Not Guiding Is the Right Move
■ A machine that can guide is built to guide
A guidance function carries a hidden assumption: that the person asking is able to walk. Ask the destination, show the route, lead the way — the sequence only completes when someone moves. Facing a patient crouched in a corner, the robot still opens that same script.
■ For some people, prompting movement is itself the danger
Someone who has sunk to the floor should not stand. Yet guidance cannot finish without motion. Read a shaken head as failed input, and the machine simply asks again. What was needed here was not a better prompt but a full stop.
■ Conclusion: Doing nothing deserves a seat in the design
Hakobukun dropped the guidance, went quiet, and parked beside her — only the staff call moved. Unless not-acting sits among the candidate behaviours from the start, a well-meaning machine will walk a patient who should stay still.
Restraint is a designed capability, not an absence.
