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Robot Round-Up

ramonmercado said:
Regrettably, philosophical investigation into the ethics around sex robots has not kept up with the tech or culture. A new study carried out in Finland may help to close the gap, though its findings raise as many questions as they answer.

https://bigthink.com/sex-relationships/sex-robot-cheating
Click to expand...

Puts me in mind of the debate over whether anime child pornography should be acceptable because no real children are harmed.

Should homicidal psychopaths be provided with a steady supply of lifelike sex robots that they can rape, torture, and murder? At first glance, that would certainly seem preferable to having them prey on the populace. Do we pay a societal cost if we facilitate an evil that's universally condemned even if there are no "victims"?
 
cycleboy2 said:
Amazon warehouse robot puts 24 human workers in hospital! They're after us, I tell you, after us!! This is just the start!

https://www.theguardian.com/technol...pitalised-after-robot-sets-off-bear-repellent
Click to expand...

Amazon have had such problems before.

But things get much stranger when you realize this isn’t the first time a can of bear repellent has exploded in an Amazon facility. In 2015, the fire department responded to an accident at an Amazon facility in Haslet, Texas, that was caused by a robot running over a can of none other than bear repellent, according to public records unearthed by Jessica Bruder for her book Nomadland, which chronicles the lives of the retail giant’s older, transient workforce.

The New Jersey incident wasn’t even the first bear repellent accident at an Amazon facility in 2018! One employee at an Amazon warehouse in Indiana told WIRED that a can ruptured in his facility earlier this year. The worker says that accident was caused by someone dropping the can, and they believe no injuries occurred. ...

https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-... NL 120718 (1)&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nl
 
hee hee .. Cyber Spider Flame Throwing Thomas The Tank Engine toy robot modification .. I enjoyed watching the whole manufacturing process but I'll link to the best bits below this link as well ..


.. the sexeh dangerous bits if you can't be arsed to watch the whole thing ..


.. Y Nakajima's original that inspired the above one ..

 
Another robot-centred near-fatality (gruesome pics at link, so be warned. And I know it's The Sun.)
A CHINESE factory worker has survived being skewered with TEN metal spikes when a robot malfunctioned.

The 49-year-old, named as Mr Zhou, was working on the night shift at a porcelain factory in Hunan province when he was struck by a falling robotic arm...The accident resulted in him being impaled with foot long, half-inch thick metal rods, the People’s Daily reported.
Click to expand...
The report goes on to mention a couple of other robot accidents, including..
Last year, a construction worker miraculously survived after he was electrocuted, thrown from his workstation and then impaled through the anus by a four-foot steel bar.
Click to expand...
...which really does qualify as a bad day at work.
 
Holy haemmorhoids! He survived that!
 
OK tech geniuses alien lesson number one - From those who know how to do it.......

How to give your robot/android a 'soul' - An animated 'psyche' - Teach it to create.......

"
Mylene Farmer & robots-C`est une Belle Journee`Timeless 2013

 
You know, if we ever do create artificial intelligences, I think some compassion and respect for a fellow sentience might be a good idea. If people loved these robots and valued them, why not lay them to rest with reverence? It may seem absurd, but I can see sense in this, and if someone is grieving a loss, even one we don't understand the significance of, doesn't mean we should mock them. Good inter-sentient ethics is a good way to avoid a skynet situation ever occurring, and may even make humanity more human and more humane. And seriously, where's the harm in any of it? If this is how someone wants to spend their dough, I say let 'em.
Thanks Buddhism.
 
Also, it's the dullard who doesn't ascribe a personality to their most loved inanimate objects: cars, favourite chairs, soft toys, sheds, we can see personalities everywhere and it makes life a bit more interesting. Also prevents you smashing things up if you have even a mild affection for them.
 
Fighting back against the Terminator cars.

People like this guy waving his gun at a driverless Waymo van in Arizona are attacking self-driving vehicles with rocks, knives, and *their own cars*, sending a message to tech companies like Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet (Google's parent company). That message is, please go experiment with artificial intelligence in somebody else’s neighborhood.

In the video above, a pissed off guy in Chandler, Arizona waves his gun at a passing Waymo van. He got in trouble for it, but man, I can empathize. By the way, the image was captured by surveillance cameras on the Waymo van, provided to the police, and sort of proving the dude's point. There have been accidents in the area involving the autonomous vans.

The New York Times reports on the tire-slashing of a driverless vehicle that once happily roamed the streets of Chandler, which isn't far from Phoenix. There have been 21 violent attacks on driverless cars there in the last few years. Waymo started testing self-driving vehicles in Chandler in 2016. Waymo did not ask the human residents if they were cool with it.

They're not cool with it.

https://boingboing.net/2018/12/31/gfy-self-driving-cars.html
 
There's going to be a nasty accident for sure with one of those cars if luddites keep trying to sabotage them. If it carries on like this there will be someone trying to drive them off the road (and into someone else).
 
Hate crimes against robots!

A hitchhiking robot was beheaded in Philadelphia. A security robot was punched to the ground in Silicon Valley. Another security bot, in San Francisco, was covered in a tarpaulin and smeared with barbecue sauce.

Why do people lash out at robots, particularly those that are built to resemble humans? It is a global phenomenon. In a mall in Osaka, Japan, three boys beat a humanoid robot with all their strength. In Moscow, a man attacked a teaching robot named Alantim with a baseball bat, kicking it to the ground, while the robot pleaded for help.

Why do we act this way? Are we secretly terrified that robots will take our jobs? Upend our societies? Control our every move with their ever-expanding capabilities and air of quiet malice?

https://www.irishtimes.com/business...n-like-robots-keep-getting-attacked-1.3765593
 
ramonmercado said:
Hate crimes against robots!

A hitchhiking robot was beheaded in Philadelphia. A security robot was punched to the ground in Silicon Valley. Another security bot, in San Francisco, was covered in a tarpaulin and smeared with barbecue sauce.

Why do people lash out at robots, particularly those that are built to resemble humans? It is a global phenomenon. In a mall in Osaka, Japan, three boys beat a humanoid robot with all their strength. In Moscow, a man attacked a teaching robot named Alantim with a baseball bat, kicking it to the ground, while the robot pleaded for help.

Why do we act this way? Are we secretly terrified that robots will take our jobs? Upend our societies? Control our every move with their ever-expanding capabilities and air of quiet malice?
Click to expand...

More than one scifi author has mooted a technology backlash (e.g. Asimov, Frank Herbert).

In my own (non-scifi) thoughts, it seems to me that a tachnology backlash, possibly catalysed by robots (especially humanoid robots) but not limited to robots, is almost a certainty at some point, taking very large scale 'directions of travel' of technological, social, political and economic issues into account.
 
Luddite

""The Luddites were a secret oath-based organization[1] of English textile workers in the 19th century, where a radical faction destroyed textile machinery as a form of protest. The group was protesting the use of machinery in a "fraudulent and deceitful manner" to get around standard labour practices.[2] Luddites feared that the time spent learning the skills of their craft would go to waste, as machines would replace their role in the industry.[3] It is a misconception that the Luddites protested against the machinery itself in an attempt to halt the progress of technology. Over time, however, the term has come to mean one opposed to industrialisation, automation, computerisation, or new technologies in general.[4] The Luddite movement began in Nottingham at a time in England when voting was reserved for a grammar-schooled elite representing a mere three percent of the total population. Lack of suffrage together with oppressive laws from Parliament culminated in a region-wide rebellion that lasted from 1811 to 1816. Mill and factory owners took to shooting protesters and eventually the movement was suppressed with legal and military force. "
Quote source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

See the real reason we need a wall in the US is to block the Mexicans from replacing the robots!

In final analysis the technocrats and their computers and robots rule - People are always second!
 
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ramonmercado said:
Hate crimes against robots!

A hitchhiking robot was beheaded in Philadelphia. A security robot was punched to the ground in Silicon Valley. Another security bot, in San Francisco, was covered in a tarpaulin and smeared with barbecue sauce.

Why do people lash out at robots, particularly those that are built to resemble humans? It is a global phenomenon. In a mall in Osaka, Japan, three boys beat a humanoid robot with all their strength. In Moscow, a man attacked a teaching robot named Alantim with a baseball bat, kicking it to the ground, while the robot pleaded for help.

Why do we act this way? Are we secretly terrified that robots will take our jobs? Upend our societies? Control our every move with their ever-expanding capabilities and air of quiet malice?

https://www.irishtimes.com/business...n-like-robots-keep-getting-attacked-1.3765593
Click to expand...

And some robots are already lashing out at people; For example:

10 Scariest A.I. Robot Moments


And some of the younger robot attackers are probably gaming addicts. playing some games where
a robot or robot army has to be beaten to win.

Then again maybe some are afraid of what is already happening........

KILLER ROBOTS ARE COMING: Google & Tesla Beg Awareness
 
AlienView said:
And some robots are already lashing out at people; For example:

10 Scariest A.I. Robot Moments


And some of the younger robot attackers are probably gaming addicts. playing some games where
a robot or robot army has to be beaten to win.

Then again maybe some are afraid of what is already happening........

KILLER ROBOTS ARE COMING: Google & Tesla Beg Awareness
Click to expand...
I'm fond of this vid when someone decided to see what would happen if Will Smith tried to chat up Sophia

 
AlienView said:
And some robots are already lashing out at people; For example:

10 Scariest A.I. Robot Moments


And some of the younger robot attackers are probably gaming addicts. playing some games where
a robot or robot army has to be beaten to win.

Then again maybe some are afraid of what is already happening........

KILLER ROBOTS ARE COMING: Google & Tesla Beg Awareness
Click to expand...

The SJWs will take the side of the Robots.
 
The following is not only informative, speculative and interesting - but near the end mystical and postulates
some really interesting possibilities........

THE AI MIND IN THE CLOUD

HAS THE SINGULARITY ALREADY HAPPENED?
​
Sophia the AI Robot Says The Darndest Things! HAS THE SINGULARITY HAPPENED? Artificial Intelligence


"
“I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.”
― Alan Turing, Computing machinery and intelligence

“People worry that computers will get too smart and take over the world, but the real problem is that they're too stupid and they've already taken over the world.”
― Pedro Domingos
 
Cassie the robot loves snow!

THIS IS NOT a story about how the polar vortex is bad—bad for the human body, bad for public transportation, bad for virtually everything in its path. This is a story about how one being among us is actually taking advantage of the historic cold snap: Cassie the bipedal robot. While humans suffer through the chill, this trunkless pair of ostrich-like legs is braving the frozen grounds of the University of Michigan, for the good of science.

“When we saw the announcement for the polar vortex, we started making plans to see how long we could operate in that kind of weather,” says roboticist Jessy Grizzle. “We were going to tie a scarf on her just so it looked cute, but we decided people would think that was keeping her warm and affecting the experiment, so we didn't.”

Scarves aside, this is vital research for a future in which robots tackle not just polar vortices but any number of other brutal environments. ...

https://www.wired.com/story/the-pun... NL 013119 (1)&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nl
 
I just had to prove to Twitter that I wasn't a Robot. Fooled them!

Anyway, in this case the doctor using the robot lacks human empathy.

A doctor in California told a patient he was going to die, using a robot with a video-link screen.

Ernest Quintana, 78, was at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fremont when a doctor - appearing on the robot's screen - informed him that he would die within a few days. A family friend wrote on social media that it was "not the way to show value and compassion to a patient".

The hospital says it "regrets falling short" of the family's expectations. Mr Quintana died the next day.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47510038?ocid=socialflow_twitter
 
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