It didn't have a gun...
... to defend himself.
BAD things happen to GOOD robots in America: hitchBot DECAPITATED
hitchBOT, the small robot that hitch-hiked across Canada last year, has been decapitated in Philadelphia. HitchBOT was an experiment in human attitudes to robots. The creation's creators give it an online bucket list and hoped that it's smiling LED face and written instructions would induce people to drive it in the direction …
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Tuesday 4th August 2015 15:08 GMT Michael Wojcik
Re: The City of Brotherly Love? Not so much.
It turns out HitchBOT is not fraternally related to anyone in Philadelphia. The motto is quite specific; they never said anything about loving machines, or anything not male.
To be honest, I was nervous when it left Marblehead for Salem. I expect the witches were fine with it, and the Puritans might stroke their beards and look askance, but there's a college in Salem and undergraduates are one of the most destructive predator species in the US. Amazing it got as far as Philly, really.
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Monday 3rd August 2015 10:24 GMT Lysenko
Re: Revenge Attack
The creators forgot to fit clearly unambiguous genitalia and name it "HeteroBOT". You know how hot under the collar some 'merkins get about ambiguous gender identity and (scare quotes time) the "Gay Agenda"!!!
Letting an intersexual and possibly homosexual (yes, I know: logic isn't relevant) robot into your CAR!!?? Possibly with ("THINK OF THE...") CHILDREN??!!
The horror doesn't bear thinking about. Thank $DEITY this unholy abomination can no longer menace impressionable young minds on the public highway.
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Monday 3rd August 2015 17:15 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: God bless America!
The US has large areas that are safe, and a few inner-city pits (mostly Democrat-controlled mega-cities) where liberal Democrat policy has had many decades to fester. I presume that the robot's builders assumed it would be okay to go thru Philly, home of American Freedom and all that. Uh, no.
That time has long passed. As stated by others, Philly is a no-go zone. That poor robot never had a chance.
Or...was this the intended result? Run the robot thru Canada and Europe, skirting any cities that might prove dangerous, then ship it off to Philly and certain doom, the better to criticize those degenerate 'Mericans.
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Monday 3rd August 2015 18:29 GMT Fraggle850
Re: God bless America!
I suspect it was just unfortunate that the robot was dropped off in a dodgy area while travelling through the US, there are plenty of dodgy places in Europe too, guess it just avoided them by good fortune.
In England our more dangerous inner city areas also tend to consistently return left of centre candidates however I wouldn't attribute the undoubted social problems to their political choices, rather I'd see that as symptomatic of the lack of affluence in those areas which tends to lead to social problems.
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Tuesday 4th August 2015 15:11 GMT Michael Wojcik
Re: God bless America!
just as long as you can afford to live in a gated community
Gated communities are for idiots. They have higher property crime rates than demographically-similar non-gated communities, and worse response times for emergency services.
And, of course, they're ethically abhorrent.
On the plus side, they collect self-indulgent, paranoid middle-class morons into clearly-demarcated pods, so the rest of us can avoid them.
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Monday 3rd August 2015 12:40 GMT Tom B
Not Surprised
I lived most of my life in Philly, where we used an old metal bed-rail to block the front door at night, and only took trash to the curb in daylight. This doesn't surprise me at all. The robot should have Googled the city before deciding to hitch-hike through it, so it's all the robot's fault.
Still, it's not a total loss. I think there's a potential horror movie in here somewhere.
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Monday 3rd August 2015 14:34 GMT sandman
Strange City
I had the pleasure (it genuinely was, great people and mostly a fun time) of working there for a few weeks. It's quite an interesting place, there's a strip extending right through the centre as far as the amazing art museum which is historic, beautiful in places and pretty safe. The only downside being a very large number of homeless people, some of whom are pretty aggressive. I was strongly advised not to go to some of the other bits under any conceivable circumstances. On my last day before flying home another of the hotel guests was murdered in their room, which was then set on fire. As I said, an interesting place...
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Monday 3rd August 2015 18:17 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: NOT indicative of American attitudes
SOME idiot? The robot's makers apparently sent it on a tour of the worst socialist hellholes to be found in North America, after shepherding it thru the less-traveled parts of Canada and Europe safely. Are they really that innocent?
Here is the Canadian route. I can't find the Europe route, but I assume it also follows the back roads as the Canadian route does. At least I don't see any large cities along it. Odd about that...
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Monday 3rd August 2015 23:25 GMT MeRp
Re: NOT indicative of American attitudes
Well, it did go through Quebec city... I've heard that place is kind of crap. Also, notably, it almost immediately entered the US after its departure, travelled through my state (Washington), then re-entered Canada. Apparently the idea that entering the US near-immediately spelled the things death-knell is forfeit.
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Tuesday 4th August 2015 19:22 GMT CharlieAmerica
Re: NOT indicative of American attitudes
Halifax, St. John, Quebec City, not bad places but certainly not "less-traveled parts of Canada"; the route from La Toque to Thunder Bay would be the worst on this trip as that truly is the middle of nowhere and traveled almost exclusively by long-haul truckers.
The remainder of the route is really the most expedient to get from TB to Vancouver (including dropping down in the East Kootenay to the U.S. and taking less windy route...
(full disclosure: despite - or because of the name for those of you who remember Not Brand Ech - I have lived across both countries and traveled same so I know of which I speak)
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Tuesday 4th August 2015 01:03 GMT Anonymous Coward
Next year - CarJackBot
Given the failure of HitchBot to complete his mission relying only human kindness, Hitchbot's memory will be transplanted into an FBI Bomb Disposal Robot, and his 30mm chain gun will offer a wider range of responses to irrational human aggression.
Seriously though, can anyone seriously expect benevolent, non-violent AI when humans act like this?
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Tuesday 4th August 2015 15:16 GMT Michael Wojcik
Re: Next year - CarJackBot
Seriously though, can anyone seriously expect benevolent, non-violent AI when humans act like this?
How are the two correlated?
Personally, I don't think "benevolent, non-violent AI" is well-defined. I don't even think "AI" is well-defined in that sentence. But even guessing at a reasonable definition, I fail to see why you think there's some connection between it and human behavior.
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Tuesday 4th August 2015 23:45 GMT Rick Brasche
Report all suspicious devices!
Homeland Security probably "defused" the poor thing.
Remember peeps, Americans are not their government. It's proven harder to remove the idiots now that more of us think rotten leaders will leave if you yell at them. We've forgotten that bad leaders only leave when they're afraid of their charges, and DC isn't afraid of twitter accounts.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
