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Robot Round-Up
- Thread starter Anonymous
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Dystopian indeed. They think animals are more important than people.
Anti-Homeless Robot Deployed in San Francisco
December 14, 2017 at 11:44 am Written by Jake Anderson
ANTIMEDIA) — As the homeless problem continues to surge in San Francisco, an animal advocacy and pet adoption clinic has taken the novel, if dystopian, approach of hiring an autonomous security robot unit to clear out vagrants. The SPCA (the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) deployed a K5 robot manufactured by Knightscope, a Silicon Valley-based robotics company, to help discourage homeless people from erecting tents on the sidewalks and streets near the clinic. Though it has reduced the number of encampments, the robot has drawn overwhelmingly negative reactions from city residents.
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Resembling a Whovian Dalek, the K5 security robot moves at around three miles per hour and is equipped with four cameras and an array of lasers, thermal sensors, and GPS. It can be rented for $6 an hour as opposed to the $16/hr a security guard costs.
http://theantimedia.org/robot-scare-homeless-people/
Anti-Homeless Robot Deployed in San Francisco
December 14, 2017 at 11:44 am Written by Jake Anderson
ANTIMEDIA) — As the homeless problem continues to surge in San Francisco, an animal advocacy and pet adoption clinic has taken the novel, if dystopian, approach of hiring an autonomous security robot unit to clear out vagrants. The SPCA (the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) deployed a K5 robot manufactured by Knightscope, a Silicon Valley-based robotics company, to help discourage homeless people from erecting tents on the sidewalks and streets near the clinic. Though it has reduced the number of encampments, the robot has drawn overwhelmingly negative reactions from city residents.
We're revolutionizing the news industry, but we need your help! Click here to get started.
Resembling a Whovian Dalek, the K5 security robot moves at around three miles per hour and is equipped with four cameras and an array of lasers, thermal sensors, and GPS. It can be rented for $6 an hour as opposed to the $16/hr a security guard costs.
http://theantimedia.org/robot-scare-homeless-people/
A weird development in robot/human relations?
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/security-robots-being-used-ward-195814833.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/security-robots-being-used-ward-195814833.html
No robots in this but I'm pretty shocked by the amount of homeless people in my part of N.London. There's definitely more in the past year or so. Under the railway bridge near the train station there's now a small encampment. It's a grotty place on a main road with pigeons roosting above & people walking by, but drier than outside.
What's especially shocking is the increase in quite young people on the streets. There's a girl of about 20 regularly in the bridge encampment. I had a brief chat with a lad of about 16 - 19 begging outside Tesco on a bitterly cold night. He had no income & couldn't claim benefits without an address & was trying to raise £12.50 for a night in the YMCA. Said he'd been sleeping in the park the last few nights. He said someone had dangled a tenner in front of him then when he'd gone to take it, the guy snatched it away & called him a dirty cunt.
He seemed to have a bleak future. Nowhere to live, no chance of finding somewhere with no money. All he can do is beg & hope to get enough for a room for the night or try to find a squat somewhere if he hasn't got family or friends to help. There's another guy in the same predicament probably late 20s early 30s who begs regularly outside where I work to get enough for shelter for the night. I've seen him go downhill in about a year. These truly are desperate times for those people who slip through the net.
What's especially shocking is the increase in quite young people on the streets. There's a girl of about 20 regularly in the bridge encampment. I had a brief chat with a lad of about 16 - 19 begging outside Tesco on a bitterly cold night. He had no income & couldn't claim benefits without an address & was trying to raise £12.50 for a night in the YMCA. Said he'd been sleeping in the park the last few nights. He said someone had dangled a tenner in front of him then when he'd gone to take it, the guy snatched it away & called him a dirty cunt.
He seemed to have a bleak future. Nowhere to live, no chance of finding somewhere with no money. All he can do is beg & hope to get enough for a room for the night or try to find a squat somewhere if he hasn't got family or friends to help. There's another guy in the same predicament probably late 20s early 30s who begs regularly outside where I work to get enough for shelter for the night. I've seen him go downhill in about a year. These truly are desperate times for those people who slip through the net.
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I think you've totally hit the nail on the head there.
As a long term disabled person, I have noticed this slow erosion over the years.
Just as an example, my oven stopped working a couple of weeks ago. Years and years ago, you used to be able to get a grant for things like that. Then everything changed to loans, so you have to pay it back (which is fair enough, of course!), with the money being taken out of your benefits before they're paid for you, but you could still get a 'crisis loan', which would pay out very quickly.
Now the DWP don't do crisis loans, they only do budgeting loans, which take about 30 days to clear. The crisis loan 'business' has been passed along to local councils, but they're allowed to decide what that budget is spent on, so our council will only do crisis loans for housing costs, and nothing else.
Add that to the restrictions on housing benefits, the 'bedroom tax' etc, etc, I don't feel there is a safety net for people like us any more
(Sorry if that sounds like whinge :/)
As a long term disabled person, I have noticed this slow erosion over the years.
Just as an example, my oven stopped working a couple of weeks ago. Years and years ago, you used to be able to get a grant for things like that. Then everything changed to loans, so you have to pay it back (which is fair enough, of course!), with the money being taken out of your benefits before they're paid for you, but you could still get a 'crisis loan', which would pay out very quickly.
Now the DWP don't do crisis loans, they only do budgeting loans, which take about 30 days to clear. The crisis loan 'business' has been passed along to local councils, but they're allowed to decide what that budget is spent on, so our council will only do crisis loans for housing costs, and nothing else.
Add that to the restrictions on housing benefits, the 'bedroom tax' etc, etc, I don't feel there is a safety net for people like us any more
(Sorry if that sounds like whinge :/)
In general I am skeptical towards 'slippery slope' arguments, but they're not even required here. We should not be using robots to corral the homeless because they are humans, not detritus--it's nothing to do with what future evil this could lead to, this is now a current evil.
Although I have a few qualms about employing robots in society, they promise to be a great boon, but dealing with the fallout from our political and social structures is a moral problem and such problems should never be automated and dehumanised--people are ends, not means to ends.
Although I have a few qualms about employing robots in society, they promise to be a great boon, but dealing with the fallout from our political and social structures is a moral problem and such problems should never be automated and dehumanised--people are ends, not means to ends.
I think you've totally hit the nail on the head there.
As a long term disabled person, I have noticed this slow erosion over the years.
Just as an example, my oven stopped working a couple of weeks ago. Years and years ago, you used to be able to get a grant for things like that. Then everything changed to loans, so you have to pay it back (which is fair enough, of course!), with the money being taken out of your benefits before they're paid for you, but you could still get a 'crisis loan', which would pay out very quickly.
Now the DWP don't do crisis loans, they only do budgeting loans, which take about 30 days to clear. The crisis loan 'business' has been passed along to local councils, but they're allowed to decide what that budget is spent on, so our council will only do crisis loans for housing costs, and nothing else.
Add that to the restrictions on housing benefits, the 'bedroom tax' etc, etc, I don't feel there is a safety net for people like us any more
(Sorry if that sounds like whinge :/)
As a long term disabled person, I have noticed this slow erosion over the years.
Just as an example, my oven stopped working a couple of weeks ago. Years and years ago, you used to be able to get a grant for things like that. Then everything changed to loans, so you have to pay it back (which is fair enough, of course!), with the money being taken out of your benefits before they're paid for you, but you could still get a 'crisis loan', which would pay out very quickly.
Now the DWP don't do crisis loans, they only do budgeting loans, which take about 30 days to clear. The crisis loan 'business' has been passed along to local councils, but they're allowed to decide what that budget is spent on, so our council will only do crisis loans for housing costs, and nothing else.
Add that to the restrictions on housing benefits, the 'bedroom tax' etc, etc, I don't feel there is a safety net for people like us any more
(Sorry if that sounds like whinge :/)
The policymakers must have a good idea of the outcome & clearly aren't bothered too much by hardship caused. Government depts can pass it on to councils whose budgets have been slashed.
I can only see the homelessness situation getting worse when cuts start to bite more. Then the robots could appear.
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I can only imagine they genuinely think we'll all go, "Well, I've had enough of this, I'm going to get a job and make something of myself instead".
And, I am actually very grateful; I do have a roof over my head (although I have to pay for my spare room, and have no chance of moving, even though I'd like to) and I have the internet and running water, which is more than lot of people have, so it could be worse.
But there is, nowadays, just this constant feeling of dread in the background, that never goes away. The safety net the welfare system used to provide just isn't there any more, IMHO. Everything is pared to the bone, and you're not treated with any dignity or humanity; just as a scrounging annoyance that TPTB would like to be gone.
And, I am actually very grateful; I do have a roof over my head (although I have to pay for my spare room, and have no chance of moving, even though I'd like to) and I have the internet and running water, which is more than lot of people have, so it could be worse.
But there is, nowadays, just this constant feeling of dread in the background, that never goes away. The safety net the welfare system used to provide just isn't there any more, IMHO. Everything is pared to the bone, and you're not treated with any dignity or humanity; just as a scrounging annoyance that TPTB would like to be gone.
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Steal/abduct the robots, take them apart for spare parts and sell those on .. problem solved, if Rey can get away with it in that Star Wars film, so can we .. Luddites with profit benefits, 2018 style .. 
.. aerosol spray paint over the video recording lens so you don't get caught then cut the power to the fuckers. Steal them, strip them down then make an earner, the GPS has to be severed ASAP.
Steal/abduct the robots, take them apart for spare parts and sell those on .. problem solved, if Rey can get away with it in that Star Wars film, so can we .. Luddites with profit benefits, 2018 style .. .. aerosol spray paint over the video recording lens so you don't get caught then cut the power to the fuckers. Steal them, strip them down then make an earner, the GPS has to be severed ASAP.