Cultural Attitudes on Robots (The hitchBOT Dies in Philly)

It's pretty pathetic when a robot gets mugged. Somebody did a good job of giving their city a bad name.

The city has had a bad name for quite some time now.

Well I can see the booing santa part( I say he has it coming) but tearing up a defenseless robot for fun is just pathetic.

Even if the robot is Canadian?

Just sayin', heck I wasn't any where near Philly at the time.

robots are ideal for repetetive jobs in any environment and very accurate. Moving robots might cause threat sometimes.

There is nothing to distinguish this "Hitchbot" from a regular IED along the roadside..

It had it coming.

I think you've just written a whole movie plot in 14 words.

The writers at KrisDel movie division are working frantically even as I'm typing this...

Del

I think it is funny as hell. And ironic, irony is funny. Some young kid probably got sacked from his robotics job and took it out on the first robot he saw. What did the creators expect to happen in the inner cities of the US?

The Robophobists will continue to do this sort of thing now that it has become a 'sport'.

Assuming that it was robophobia and not just teenage vandalism...here's a thought. The tension between humans and robots is a subject that has been explored through much of the classic sci-fi literature, most notably Asimov. The three laws of robotics were designed to make maximum use of robots, but protect humans. Our society has a huge number of robots, but very little in the way of human protection. The closest we come to protections is collective bargaining, but that has limited powers.

" Our society has a huge number of robots, but very little in the way of human protection. The closest we come to protections is collective bargaining, but that has limited powers."

I thought us having control over their power switches/sources and the majority of them being bolted to floors in assembly plants clearly gave us the upper hand? Was I wrong?

You forgot all the guards and safeties you need to prevent accidental human/robot 'interaction'⁽¹⁾, robots, when set up properly, are completely safe in the workplace.

Unless we're dealing not with Robotics in particular, but Automation in general, where the threat is not to human lives, but to unskilled/semi-skilled human JOBS, as the mention of Collective Bargaining would indicate. Sadly, when a menial or dangerous job is handed off to a robot, and the worker is unable or unwilling to retrain to a more sophisticated task, there is not much in the 'social safety net' to provide him with comparable employment to his last position. But that is a Big Question deserving its own thread.(2)

It's too bad HitchBOT didn't link up with a Sci-Fi con/Comic con/Furry con attendee, he would have been safe there, handed off from friend to friend as an impromptu item got added to his bucket list: "Visit as many conventions this year as possible." Yeah it might have slowed his ultimate journey down a bit, as he's driven back and forth across the country, but he would have seen a better side of America, and it would be a long time before he was left alone to wait for the next pickup, even if it meant he was spending more dinners with the same groups than he was intending⁽⁴⁾.

Notes:

1. By which I mean "Oops, you stuck your hand through that access hatch that should have been closed, and the robot arm 'interacted' with your arm, breaking the Ulna and putting hairline fractures on the Radius. At least your wrist was undamaged, we'll get you to the hospital, and now the machine needs to be shut down until we complete the investigation of why the robot was still moving with that door open, the safeties should have prevented that."
2. I'd hate to think HitchBOT was attacked in an anti-automation gesture. The little guy wasn't out to take anyone's job, he was a simple tourist, just out to see the sights and make friends. That's like punching a paperboy⁽³⁾ in the face because you lost your job at the steelmill.
3. It's a dated reference, I know, even more out-of-style than half my jokes, but it fits the iconic image of an Innocent, just trying to get by in the world, suffering abuse for something he had no influence over.
4. Yeah you'll get the same cross section of humanity at a con as you do in real life, but you'll find the friendly ones tend to stick up for 'people⁽⁵⁾' when facing down the jerks.
5. And if you can say 'excuse me,' in whatever language, you count as a person in their books. Species, skin tone, biology, technology, that's all trivia to con goers. Heck, some even treat ME as a person, despite my 'Granpa' jokes.
   

Yeah, cow tipping used to not be a thing, either.

Location inside the US probably had little to do with its destruction. It could have happened in any city here or even in a small town. There's been a fundamental attitude change in the US over the past 20 years or so. Personally, I think it's been fueled by the media's/'news' outlet's ever harsher attempts to capture the attention of the American people. Extremists of all types, shock jocks, 'pundits' for whom no one is not a target, all examples of each trying to out shock, out hate each other. It's pathetic.

Not only has it left us with a useless news system that is incapable of reporting simple facts, it has, for the last 20 years, been promoting an attitude of vitriol, spite and outright hate. Gentlemen's rules were thrown out in favor of covering the most outrageous behavior of politicians, celebrities, you name it. It leaves us in a situation lacking civility. In my mind, a dangerous place to be.

HitchBOT was far more likely attacked by someone who couldn't see the repercussions of their actions, who didn't understand the big picture in which their actions would be seen. Kids thinking it was fun? Angry thugs devoid of common courtesy? Just a random, seemingly normal, person who happened to be angry at the time and took it out on someone else's property? I can't say, but I hope they see this story and see what a fool they've been.

And I thought Bill Murry's character was just spouting hyperbole in Stripes when he rallies his squad with that line, "That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world." I used to chuckle at that line, but the attack on Hitchbot in Philly shows in clear detail WHY no 'decent' country would have us.

I can just hear the French people now, delivering YET ANOTHER snooty "I told you do, Americans are nothing but stupid, violent beasts with no culture," and THIS time we don't have a snappy comeback⁽¹⁾.

Notes:

1. Unlike that one UN mixer where the French delegate was complaining loudly about everyone here speaking English instead of French, the 'first listed' official language of the UN. The American delegate replied with, "Maybe it's because if it weren't for the US, you'd be speaking German now."
   

Yeah, I want to stick up for the UK... Our vandals are just as mindless as yours...

You wanna' fight about it?

No guns tho' cos' we ain't allowed guns... and no pulling tails I hate that

Del

Well, what is a Robot?

an automatic gate? people get killed by them all the time

a car? same as above

a plane?

a cruise ship?

an M1A1 tank?

No wonder they ripped off his head. Now the score is:

Robots: countless millions, Humans: one.

I think there's a difference between a machine (car or gate) and a robot.

OK granted. What is the difference?

Isn't an ICBM or a Laser Guided Missile a Robot?

Ahh this is what really gets to the point. What are the meanings of the terms we're using. I just did a quick search of the word robot.

Ignoring the definitions that aren't pertinent to our discussion (i.e. "the dance called the robot involving a succession of separate movements executed with precision in imitation of a robot"or "a person who works mechanically without thinking"....both are rather interesting when you consider that a robot is defined by many sources as imitating a human.)....a robot is defined as:

• a mechanical device that sometimes resembles a human and is capable of performing a variety of often complex human tasks on command or by being programmed in advanced.
• a machine or device that operates automatically or by remote control.
• any automated machine programmed to perform specific mechanical function in the manner of a man
• a mechanism guided by automatic controls

I think the last one is the most general so let's use it for the sake of discussion.

A car? At the moment most cars would not be considered robots. I can see an argument for a car using cruise control to be considered a robot, but I think that's a rather weak argument as the car is not being controlled by automatic controls'...only a small portion of the car is (it's speed). The direction of the car is controlled by the driver (hopefully). Granted more and more human operations are being turned over to 'the machine' such as wiper control, automatic head lights and eventually the driving of the vehicle itself (but I would say that's too small a number for us to say cars are robots....a minute fraction of a percentage...yes).

An ICBM? Hmmmm only after it has been launched. It doesn't have the ability to launch itself yet....not until Skynet takes over.

A plane? similar to an ICBM I guess, but not always. Only when the autopilot is engaged. Although, Airbus has gone a long way toward removing the pilot's ability to control the plane. I think they (Airbus) would say that humans flying planes have caused more deaths than the computers flying planes.

M1A1 tank? I'm not sure how automated they are. They have human operators in them. Are they only there to tell the weapons what to shoot? To tell the automated driver which direction to go? How is that then a robot?

Cruise ships? I have no idea where these would fall. How automated are the actual maneuvering control of the ship? Other ship functions (dumping toilets, etc.)?

At what point to we transition from saying a machine is a just a machine to it's a robot? Is a calculator just a machine? Once the human hits the equal button, the calculator automatically does the math (which is what it's programmed to do). If that's the case, then anything machine that has a program can be considered a robot.

I would say that if the machine, at most, only required human action to be powered up, then it's should be considered a robot.

Check out this "robot spaceplane":

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3186484/The-X-37b-s-big-brother-revealed-Boeing-bags-6-6m-contract-design-reusable-XS-1-robot-spaceplane-launch-secret-spy-satellites-space-weapons.html

Interesting. But that hardly shifts all planes into the robot category.

"designed as a social experiment" introduced into society. Was this result anticipated?

Could this be an illustration of the "Tar Baby" syndrome?

Perhaps this experiment could be used to make the connection between the quality of mental health care and demographics.

What no one has addressed is that there was a tablet PC inside the robot. Was it recovered? If not, theft for drug money is a likely cause for the attack rather than any vendetta against robots. Or it may be just plain mindless vandalism/boredom combined with a lack of fear of any meaningful reprisal/punishment.

I completely agree... it seems by far the most likely motive. Some low life broke off the tablet to sell it for whatever addiction he had. I'm not going to give Philly the credit of having reached the maturity necessary to have anything like robophobia.

But thieving desperate scum are everywhere. The sad irony is that probably he could find nobody to pay anything for it, so it could very well have been later tossed on a trash heap.

This just in: Forensic examination revealed that the HitchBot was raped!

http://www.engadget.com/2015/08/07/abuse-evading-algorithm-robots/

Bad little Japanese kids caused the programmers to write an evasion algorithm.

News flash: Kids can be Little Monsters!

Later in the broadcast: Water Discovered to be Wet!

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Although, to be fair, I find that while at trade shows, when there are robots/ Automated Guided Vehicles working in an area where people are allowed to walk through, I have the tendency to walk into their path, and then snark gently at them when they beep for me to move. I'm normally very polite and respectful of our non-organic brethren, but trade shows just seem to bring out the worst in me.

I think your experience with trade floor robots illustrates the point of view of the developers. That is one of higher superiority. Therefore you should be yielding to them, not the other way around. I believe that issue will be one that if not addressed quickly, will sour the general public's view of 'autonomous' robots. People's expectation is that robots are here to serve us, and once we feel subservient to the robot, its fate is sealed. Other than being annoying little toys for somebody's technical ego.

I think you're right, I guess I am 'lording it over' the bots at the trade show.

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Or perhaps, perhaps, I'm waiting for one to actually say 'pardon me,' because, like the patrons at Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, that's all the proof needed to consider the speaker as a person.

(There's a lot of wisdom within the pages of many Spider Robinson books, if you've got a stomach for the puns also therein.)

Interesting article.

It made me think of a study that was done using fake snake and turtles (and I think other animals) on a road. The just of it was that some people would go out of their way to run over the animals. One person ran over the snake, backed up and ran it over several times before moving on.

Kind of a sad commentary on human behaviour. And for those who think humans, even kids are altuistic....think again.