Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Camel-Riding Robots

Posted by samzenpus on from the stop-stealing-children dept.

misterpies writes "Of the many jobs robots could be put to use, here's one I'll bet not many slashdotters have considered - camel jockeys. According to the BBC, from next year racing camels in the United Arab Emirates will be ridden by robots. And for once, the folks put out of work won't be complaining - mostly children (some as young as four) who are reportedly abducted or sold by their families to unscrupulous racing-camel owners. How long until we see robots take over from humans in other sports?"

217 comments

  1. Crossover by suso · · Score: 1, Funny

    Sounds like Short Circuit meets Ishtar or City Slickers. They should do a remake now.

    1. Re:Crossover by kiatoa · · Score: 3, Informative

      Looks just about as silly too. Rendered pic of camel jocky

      --
      90% of the wealth is in 2% of the pockets. Bummer to be in the majority.
    2. Re:Crossover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can see the Fark headline now:

      Swiss-made robots to replace camel jockeys in Qatar, tell time, find Sarah Connor.

  2. Battle-Bots by maotx · · Score: 4, Funny

    How long until we see robots take over from humans in other sports?

    Better yet, how long until we see robots take over humans for sports?
    Nothing like the sound of a solid ka-thunk of a head to make a goal in front of a roaring crowd of robots.

    --
    I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
    1. Re:Battle-Bots by RLW · · Score: 1

      In Robo football a field goal is made by kicking what would have been the *ball* held in place by the ball holder with the *head* of the "holder" through the uprights.

      A steamroller will really be a steam roller! The Jetsons have this aspect of the future nailed down!

    2. Re:Battle-Bots by Desiderata · · Score: 1

      When robots are as goodlooking and marketable as David Bekham. Until then, they'll only have the "cute" novelty thing going.
      Teenage girls are an important market, I tell you!

  3. Now, this is an example... by agraupe · · Score: 1, Troll

    Of why a lot of people think the Arab world is screwed up. We'll give you your religion, if you don't blow shit up because of it, but abducting children to use as camel jockies is just bizzare. Building a robot... well, cool... but bizzare.

    1. Re:Now, this is an example... by mrsev · · Score: 4, Interesting

      ...I was absolutely shocked to see the phrase "camel jockeys" on the front page of slashdot. I had to take a doulbe take. I am sure that many other English readers will feel the same. A "camel jockey" in english slang is a term of denigration for Arabs in general.

      As regards your percapetion of the arab world sports may I remind you that we, in the west, put migets on horses and race them. Anyway makes more sense that American Football or Cricket...both incomprihensable to outsiders.

    2. Re:Now, this is an example... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      My favourite strange sport is the biathlon. I suppose it was invented by the government to produce proficient alpine snipers for warfare in the arctic areas of the planet.

    3. Re:Now, this is an example... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We'll give you your religion (...)

      I for one welcome our new uhmm... American Overlords!

      Snap out of it, you're not the greatest country in the world.

    4. Re:Now, this is an example... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As opposed to what? The US who is sending 18-year-olds into war ?

    5. Re:Now, this is an example... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Assuming that you're an average american and buy the same things an average american does, have you considered how much of the stuff you own is produced in sweatshops by children or by the exploited? I'm sure it's not a trivial amount. How does that make you feel? What are you going to do about it?

      Also, what do you mean by 'your religion'? Christianity? Zoroastrianism? Islam? Judiasm? Baha'ism? The 'arab world' is a very large and diverse place full of different ethnicities and beliefs. Making sweeping generalisations about its people is unfair. It's like generalising for all 'westerners' (i.e whites), 'orientals', or 'blacks'.

    6. Re:Now, this is an example... by asliarun · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, this is no big shit. Child labour is extremely common in most countries in Asia and Africa. It only sounds outlandish or cruel to you because it's not common in your country. Note that i'm not supporting child labour or "child selling" in ANY form. I'm only commenting on the present day reality.

      The reality is that a LOT of people in Asia and Africa have never ever had 2 square meals in a day, ever since they were born. The number of said people also exceeds the total population of USA, Canada, and Europe combined. Faced with such extreme hunger, many families prefer to sell off their children instead of watching them die of malnutrition or disease. The added benefit is that they make a little money out of it, which sees them through a year or two.

      It's not that these people don't love their children. For many such families, selling off their children is actually a demonstration of their love for their child. They know that even though their child will be ill-treated by the Arab or whoever is buying the child, at least their child will be reasonably well-fed and will have an outside chance of getting a decent education. It beats a slow death in any case.

      Look at it another way. Say, hypothetically, that you're stranded in an island along with your child. You have a boat that can only seat your child. You're also slowly dying of hunger in the island. Given impending death due to starvation, will you or won't you set your child adrift in the sea if you know that your child has a 10% chance of survival?

      P.S. I'm not exaggerating this by any means. Thousands of families in India commit suicide every year, especially if the rainfall is bad that year. The poison of choice, IIRC, is a local pesticide, which has now been banned in many villages. Selling children is also not uncommon.

    7. Re:Now, this is an example... by GrumpyDeveloper · · Score: 2, Funny

      we, in the west, put migets on horses

      Actually, the politically correct term is "little people", you insensitive clod...

    8. Re:Now, this is an example... by TheGavster · · Score: 0, Troll

      If your family has been poor and hungry for several generations, why have children? Its called a condom, folks.

      --
      "Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
    9. Re:Now, this is an example... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "If your family has been poor and hungry for several generations, why have children?"

      It's the closest thing they have to life insurance. This is why poor people have more rather than fewer children, generally speaking. When you're that poor, children are a resource.

    10. Re:Now, this is an example... by schtum · · Score: 1

      Your post has no sense of perspective. 142 years ago, America fought a civil war over slavery. 85 years ago, women couldn't vote. 41 years ago, blacks were still legally subhuman. 40 years from now, gay marriage will be taken for granted. Rather than write off the entire arab world as an abomination, we should be lending support to their Susan B. Anthonys and Martin Luther Kings. We didn't get where we are today without a fight, and neither will they.

    11. Re:Now, this is an example... by Hogwash+McFly · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      That's because we can't enter their mystical parallel realm...

      --
      Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
    12. Re:Now, this is an example... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > If your family has been poor and hungry for several generations, why have children?
      > Its called a condom, folks.

      Because they'd like to keep eating (if not well) in their old age. Your children are your retirement policy. So you not only have kids, you have a lot of them.

      Chris Mattern

    13. Re:Now, this is an example... by R.D.Olivaw · · Score: 1

      actually the politically correct term is 'vertically challenged'

    14. Re:Now, this is an example... by danila · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's why mandatory population control (using sterelisation, if necessary) would be a more humane policy than demanding child jokeys to be replaced with robots.

      Of course, the Western society (and human rights activists) doesn't really care about people, they care about their perception of what is proper.

      --
      Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
    15. Re:Now, this is an example... by the_macman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You act like those 18-years didn't sign up themselves. Nobody forced them to join the military. It's a decision everyone makes on their own. So please don't try to run that sob story on us. This country needs soldiers and it needs physically fit soldiers to meet the demands of today's wars. So please stop acting like it's a travesty.

    16. Re:Now, this is an example... by kenneytechnologies · · Score: 1

      We do. We just saw the election of one to President of Iraq.

    17. Re:Now, this is an example... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean it hasn't changed to "those with significant altitude deficits" yet?

    18. Re:Now, this is an example... by glesga_kiss · · Score: 2, Insightful
      That's why mandatory population control (using sterelisation, if necessary) would be a more humane policy

      Been tried before in Germany and the US, both by evil folk. Didn't go down to well, in fact there were some cases recently stateside where people that had been forcably sterilized sued. However, you'd solve more of the abstract problems causing the poverty by giving out immunisations to common diseases rather than than serilization. Jeez, daily aids deaths are around 3,000 and they can't even give out enough contraception to them.

      Of course, the Western society (and human rights activists) doesn't really care about people, they care about their perception of what is proper.

      No, they onlu care about the sales brought by appearing to be proper. It's all front.

    19. Re:Now, this is an example... by glesga_kiss · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Child labour is extremely common in most countries in Asia and Africa. It only sounds outlandish or cruel to you because it's not common in your country.
      "When I were a kid, I were down t' mine at 6am...."

      And it was really popular in western society at one point. Chimney sweeps, mining, anything where your small size was an advantage meant that kids got the job.

      It's only recently that we've gotten this perverse idea that childhood lasts til 18 (and all the rebelion that comes from treating adults as children). And then we slate other countries for being 50-100 years behind us in social development!!

    20. Re:Now, this is an example... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Funny
      No, deficits is clearly negative.

      Now, being smaller means there's less difference in gravity potencial between head and feet. According to general relativity, this means less difference in speed of time. Therefore I propose as next term:
      better synchronized people


      Now, thinking about it, this may be negative towards the tall people ...
      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    21. Re:Now, this is an example... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Its called a condom, folks
      Condoms are not common in areas where it's even hard to get a good supply of asprin or band-aids. I traveled the Phillipines and found areas where whole families had infected sores on their bodies because there is not a local place to get a sterille band-aid. So how do you expect them to get condoms?

    22. Re:Now, this is an example... by kahei · · Score: 1


      A "camel jockey" in english slang is a term of denigration for Arabs in general.

      You forgot to add 'in my tiny village in Somerset which time has passed by and where every night the plowmen gather in the old thatched inn to sacrifice a goat to the Harvest God'.

      Elsewhere in the UK, 'camel jockey' is a jockey who rides a camel.


      As regards your percapetion

      You leave my percapetion out of this! I'm taking pills for it, that's all I can do.

      --
      Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
    23. Re:Now, this is an example... by mrsev · · Score: 1

      "You forgot to add 'in my tiny village in Somerset which time has passed by and where every night the plowmen gather in the old thatched inn to sacrifice a goat to the Harvest God'."

      That I why I said slang. If everyone who spoke english used it it would be called english.

      However it is more common than you think.
      See:
      http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin e.php?term=cam el+jockey&r=f
      http://www.angelfire.com/geek/APRAC E/glossary.html
      http://www.diversitywatch.ryerson.ca/glossary/c. ht m
      also in the script of "3 kings" the movie..so I guess it is used in the US too.
      http://www.diversityhotwire.com/diversity_wo rd_of_ month.html

    24. Re:Now, this is an example... by jred · · Score: 1

      We're too poor to afford food, but by George! we're getting condoms!!!

      If you had thought just a little bit before you wrote that, you might have abstained.

      --

      jred
      I'm not a mechanic but I play one in my garage...
    25. Re:Now, this is an example... by elgatozorbas · · Score: 1
      If you had thought just a little bit before you wrote that, you might have abstained.

      ... which is also what those people could have done. It IS possible, just look at the /. crowd.

    26. Re:Now, this is an example... by TFGeditor · · Score: 3, Insightful

      We do not "put midgets" on horses. Jockeys climb on voluntarily and are paid for their services. They are paid professionals, not involuntary slaves. Helluva difference.

      --
      Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
    27. Re:Now, this is an example... by Mullen · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I just had to respond to this since it was the most retarted thing I have ever read.

      Slavery is wrong, period. These kids are being sold in to slavery where there are beaten, abused, sexually exploited, and when they get too big to ride the camels, they are sold off to some other low life who does worse things to them. You think the men who buy these kids setup college funds for these poor kids? Nope, they sell them off when they have no use for them, and if no one will buy them, they kick them out onto the streets or they kill them.

      Now, that your island is plain fucking lame. If I had a kid and I had a choice between starving with my kid and selling them off to be abused, exploited, and/or raped, I would pick starving to death with them. Yes, that sucks too, but I would die with my kids, in my arms, knowing how much I love them, rather than have them turned into 14 year prositute who will die of AIDS at 15.

      All I have to add is, if the other billion people in your country think that way, you should call up the Queen of England and ask her and the British to come back and run your country, again.

      --
      Linux O Muerte!
    28. Re:Now, this is an example... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      This is the second story I've heard recently that includes the oil rich Arab countries mistreating/abusing people from less fortunate cultures.

      If you buy a child in America, you go to jail.
      If you buy a child to race camels, it's all good.

      If you abuse a maid from any country in America, you go to jail.
      If you kill a maid in Saudi Arabia, you can just go to that maid's country of origin and pay $10k for forgiveness.

      Oil prices are going up. Why? Maybe it costs a lot to buy children and pay for slaves.

      And you think a war over oil is a bad thing?

    29. Re:Now, this is an example... by wirelessbuzzers · · Score: 1

      However, you'd solve more of the abstract problems causing the poverty by giving out immunisations to common diseases rather than than serilization. Jeez, daily aids deaths are around 3,000 and they can't even give out enough contraception to them.

      If anybody had a vaccine for AIDS, sub-Saharan Africa would be the first target. But nobody does. Of course, there are other diseases you could vaccinate for. But that doesn't solve the famine.

      --
      I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
    30. Re:Now, this is an example... by mr100percent · · Score: 1

      You don't get "forgiveness" by paying money. Money is only paid out in accidental death cases, car accidents, manslaughter, etc. Murder is murder, and that's a likely death penalty.

    31. Re:Now, this is an example... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When servants die under mysterious circumstances due to abuse, the cases are often called "accidents".

    32. Re:Now, this is an example... by glesga_kiss · · Score: 1
      If anybody had a vaccine for AIDS

      Contraception is a vaccine for AIDS, it's just not as simple as an injection. Provided you don't get it though bad medical care that is, but that's unlikely provided the staff have had even very basic training.

      Solving some of the more debilatating diseases would go some way to solve the famine, sick people are a drain on your resources and you'd rather have them able to be productive in society. As for countries that have bad weather for crops, I'm all for the millenia old trick of migration to more hospitible lands, but politics and borders tend to screw that up these days.

    33. Re:Now, this is an example... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Camel Jockey?" I believe the correct nomenclature is Raghead, Towelhead or Sand Nigger.

    34. Re:Now, this is an example... by wirelessbuzzers · · Score: 1

      Contraception is a vaccine for AIDS, it's just not as simple as an injection. Provided you don't get it though bad medical care that is, but that's unlikely provided the staff have had even very basic training.

      Contraception is not a vaccine for AIDS, just as washing your hands frequently and not rubbing your eyes is not a vaccine for the flu. These are preventative measures.

      A vaccine is a measure to boost immune system resistence to a specific pathogen by exposure to a weakened or killed form of it. Unlike contraception and the like, it affords a fairly high level of protection once and for all, or at least for say 10 years at which point you get a booster. Thus a hepatitis B vaccine that you got 5 years ago protects you (or has a good chance of protecting you) against hepatitis B if you get gang raped (a major problem especially in South Africa) or if you use a defective condom, or if you get bad medical care, or if you share needles, or if you get into a bloody brawl, or whatever. Contraception does not protect against these, and in fact condoms are not a tremendously effective measure against AIDS, even if they don't break.

      A vaccine against AIDS would be an extremely effective measure against its advance, especially in countries where consensual sex is not the only common transmission mode. Education and distribution of contraceptives are important, but they are not a final solution.

      --
      I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
    35. Re:Now, this is an example... by asliarun · · Score: 1

      Sorry, i'm having a little difficulty hearing you from your ivory tower. Nonetheless, i'll try and respond to your insults, that seem to have more ignorance than logic.

      "Slavery is wrong, period."

      Please read my fuckin post. I said the same thing as well, and that too in the first line of my post. Jeeez

      "These kids are being sold in to slavery where there are beaten, abused, sexually exploited, and when they get too big to ride the camels, they are sold off to some other low life who does worse things to them."

      You and i know that because we have access to mass media such as TV and the internet. Let me assure you that the people who sell off their children are too busy fighting off starvation to watch the 9 o clock news. Most such parents are also assured by the middle-men that their child will be well fed and educated. Remember, these are simple villagers who've never a city, much less its perversion.

      "Now, that your island is plain fucking lame. If I had a kid and I had a choice between starving with my kid and selling them off to be abused, exploited, and/or raped, I would pick starving to death with them. Yes, that sucks too, but I would die with my kids, in my arms, knowing how much I love them, rather than have them turned into 14 year prositute who will die of AIDS at 15."

      No-one would sell their child if they knew their child will be sexually molested or raped, you moron. Do you think that parental love is a monopoly of white American suburbia? When do people like you get off your high horse? My point was, given a 10% chance of survival against a 1% chance of surviving hunger, would you choose the 10% option?

      "All I have to add is, if the other billion people in your country think that way, you should call up the Queen of England and ask her and the British to come back and run your country, again."

      Thousands of American teenagers from Podunk go to Las Vegas or Hollywood to become stars and end up as prostitutes, drug addicts, or worse. Thousands of Americans get murdered, raped, and sexually abused every day, including children and adults. By the same token, if we should invite UK to rule over us once again, you should take your immigrant ass back to the country from which you came.

      Note that i have absolutely nothing against Americans or anybody else. I'm only showing you that racial insults or mindsets can go both ways. Instead of looking at something from YOUR point of view, try and put yourself in the other person's shoes. A person dying of disease or hunger does not worry about reconfiguring his/her router.

    36. Re:Now, this is an example... by agraupe · · Score: 1

      I don't harbour any illusions as to being the best country (I'm actually Canadian), but if the Arab world wants respect, it has to step up and join the modern world. I don't have a problem with Islam, in fact I think it is better than most Christian offshoots. The problem comes when it starts to make people do things like crash planes into buildings, and construct car bombs. It's not that these things are great ideas on their own; trust me. I don't want to get into a debate over whether Islam tells people to do these things, because quite obviously the governments of Iran, Afghanistan, and questionably Saudi Arabia, along with Al-Qaida, thought that Allah wanted them to do this. The point I'm trying to make is that, it is mostly by the grace of the Western world, that we even deal with backward places such as Saudi Arabia, and their zealotry is setting them back.

    37. Re:Now, this is an example... by agraupe · · Score: 1

      Because, you know, they might not be weak-minded, easy targets for recruiters. They might have some other prospects given by their countries robust economy. For most of the Army recruits (i.e. the ground soldiers), the Army is really the only option. I know a guy who's joining the army/air force just to get a pilot's license, which is, in a way, related (I'm paying for mine myself). The point being that the Bush government has artfully engineered an economic climate that is condusive to heavy recruitment. Conspiracy? Wouldn't put it past him, but I'm trying to maintain a shred of credibility, so I'll say it's just a coincidence. But it's still interesting.

    38. Re:Now, this is an example... by bhiestand · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think you should know that while that MAY be the case in India, it is certainly quite different in Thailand. Daughters sold into prostitution are shunned and outcast by the family for it. If they ever safely return to their family, despite sending money home for years on end and being forced into the trade to begin with, they are basically a lower class of society and within the family. They're looked down on, called dirty whores, and blamed for everything they did during that period of time. This isn't uncommon throughout southeast asia.

      Parents will quite often pick a kid before birth. They will decide on one, and treat it more like a dog than their child. They'll try not to grow attached to it, because they know its fate. It will have older, crummier clothes, and be treated like crap until it is old enough to be sold into sex slavery. At that point in time it'll have to send home all the money it earns, and if it ever survives without any fatal diseases or anything else, and gets a chance to return home, it will already have shamed the family and itself with its deeds.

      I have to agree with you, these parents _really_ love their kids in ways westerners will never understand.

      --
      SWM seeks new sig for a brief fling
    39. Re:Now, this is an example... by shanen · · Score: 1
      No, it's called eugenics.

      The Nazis were big on it. Also Dubya's grandfather, though it has became politically awkward to mention it these days.

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    40. Re:Now, this is an example... by adavies42 · · Score: 1

      Then call it Darwinism in action. I, for one, don't want the "weak-minded" reproducing. There are enough easily swayed idiots out there, something on which we can all agree, no matter our political persuasion. After all, the last four presidential elections have all come down to less than 5% margins.

      --
      Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
      -kfg
    41. Re:Now, this is an example... by adavies42 · · Score: 1

      Except that some warlord would inform his people that whitey was trying to make them all impotent, and they'd all refuse to take it.

      --
      Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
      -kfg
  4. I would like to see by I_am_Rambi · · Score: 1

    robots take over human in (American) football. Never mind it would be too expensive to keep repairing them and replacing them.

    1. Re:I would like to see by The+Tyrant · · Score: 1

      Oh come on... robots wont get damaged, any more than american football player do. Now, if you had robots that play rugby, it'd be a different thing indeed and you'd need a lot of half time repairs.

    2. Re:I would like to see by Coeurderoy · · Score: 1

      It would destroy American "civilisation", jocks would have to learn a job and do something useful instead of turning into PHBs.
      Even worse the incresdible stupidity of looking at spectator sport (AF, BB, Soccer, Criket, etc...) Would finaly hit home and people would start to do something with their lives.
      Billions of useless advertisement money would disappear hand would have to be invested in something that actually creates value.
      How horrible ;-)

  5. money by mboverload · · Score: 4, Funny

    20 rubees on Robo-Akmed!

    1. Re:money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First, I think you meant 'rupees' (yes, the same currency as in the Zelda games).

      Second, you'll find the UAE's currency is the Dirham.

  6. Wow. by dayid · · Score: 4, Funny

    I do believe this is the stupidest story I've ever seen posted here.

    1. Re:Wow. by isa-kuruption · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wait until it's reposted... later today.

    2. Re:Wow. by ZosX · · Score: 1

      And next week.... And then a year from now....

      --
      zosxavius photography
    3. Re:Wow. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Of the many jobs robots could be put to use, here's one I'll bet not many slashdotters have considered - camel jockeys. According to the BBC, from next year racing camels in the United Arab Emirates will be ridden by robots. And for once, the folks put out of work won't be complaining - mostly children (some as young as four) who are reportedly abducted or sold by their families to unscrupulous racing-camel owners. How long until we see robots take over from humans in other sports?"

  7. Yeah, right... by brilinux · · Score: 4, Funny
    Here's one not many slashdotters have considered

    Pshaww... pretty much as soon as I found out what a robot was when I was a child, the first thing that came to my mind was, "I wonder if such things could be made to ride camels". Geesh, I wonder where that submitter has been all his life...

    1. Re:Yeah, right... by yintercept · · Score: 1
      when I was a child, the first thing that came to my mind was, "I wonder if such things could be made to ride camels".

      My first thought was that we might someday be able to make a machine that smokes Camels...the robots would get the lung cancer and the humans would get the buzz.

      BTW, getting robots to ride camels doesn't seem to be that hard. You could strap a robosapien atop a dromedary and call it an afternoon. The success of the effort has more to do with the quality of the straps than the robot. It seems that the real trick is to get camels to response to commands issued by a remote device. This seems like more of a communication and training problem than one of robotics.

  8. PETR by bigtallmofo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wait until People for the Ethical Treatment of Robots starts throwing oil on the camels in protest!

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
    1. Re:PETR by Chatsubo · · Score: 1

      Knowing those types, they'll likely be called "People for the Humane Treatment of Robots."

      --
      > no, yes, maybe (tagging beta)
  9. RC-Camel by mboverload · · Score: 1

    New at Radio-Dirt-Hut! Remote control your camel from up to 50 feet away!

  10. Complex task vs. low wages by akadruid · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is exactly a prime use for robots, assuming I don't mistunderstand the social aspects involved.

    What surprises me is that a relatively complex task in an area where human wages are fairly low should justify the replacement of humans by robots, and yet in countries where wages are sky high, human workers are doing much simpler tasks.

    The fact that is appears as surreal as a python sketch obviously shows up my lack of knowledge of other cultures.

    --
    "Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything." (attrib. Joseph Stalin)
    1. Re:Complex task vs. low wages by gl4ss · · Score: 2, Informative

      the kids are not used because of low wages.

      they're used because of low weight(underfed too.. to remain low weight).

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    2. Re:Complex task vs. low wages by fireboy1919 · · Score: 3, Informative

      And possibly, or more likely, probably this indicates that you don't know what is complex for a robot and how much it costs to buy and maintain one.

      Even in the States, its far cheaper to hire someone to pick strawberries, sweep walkways, mow lawns, weed gardens, clean toilets, and a number of other similar mundane tasks than it is to get robots to do it. In addition, with the exception of sweeping and mowing, those tasks are all complicated for a robot (and even in the case of sweeping and mowing, a robot usually doesn't do a very good job).

      It is highly unlikely that this is a suitable task for a robot. It is a task that will likely require more maintenance (on-site robot repair team vs monthly doctor visits), human labor (robot repair team, and robot teleoperator vs small human), and cost (cost of robot, cost of paying team vs cost of labor for a small human) than the previous way.

      --
      Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
    3. Re:Complex task vs. low wages by akadruid · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You're quite right - I have no idea about costing real world robots, but I think that is a market issue.

      I think it will require radical changes in the way we design and think about things, but its proven possible to achieve - ATMs and other vending machines and printing are some of the more successful ones that I can think of.

      In most cases I think that it is the flexability of humans that wins out - most of the situations you mentioned, the task varies too much to be automated properly yet - e.g. street sweepers have to navigate obscure obstacles and deal with a multitude of subtly different targets.

      But, for example, how about robots to prepare fast food? It's a straight forward repetative task which a machine can be designed for - non-trivial perhaps, but well within todays technology.

      Humans require various costs above their salary, even subtle things such as increased work space, which may be valuable. I think it is already feasible for, say, McDonalds in ultra busy areas (such as Oxford Street, London).

      The way you pay for robots is very different too. Robots require a huge up front design cost, a noticable investment to buy, and a smaller amount to run - varying quality of design probably affects maintainence costs the most.

      There are various subtle improvements that robots can bring to mundane tasks too, such as the ability to work much longer hours, or at off-peak hours, attention to detail, consistant performance, improved speed and power in some roles, and so on.

      --
      "Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything." (attrib. Joseph Stalin)
    4. Re:Complex task vs. low wages by Intron · · Score: 1

      Even in the auto assembly world where robots have become king, a human can outperform a robot in cost/productivity if just comparing time on the job. However the robot works 24/7 with no loss for shift changes, holidays or strikes; no accidents, suits or medical bills; no theft or deliberate vandalism; and consistent quality.

      --
      Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
    5. Re:Complex task vs. low wages by AvitarX · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's not to save money. The purpose is to eliminate child slavery.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    6. Re:Complex task vs. low wages by Qzukk · · Score: 1

      But, for example, how about robots to prepare fast food? It's a straight forward repetative task which a machine can be designed for - non-trivial perhaps, but well within todays technology.

      It requires too many points of articulation to build a robot that can not only flip burgers but also to toss the ones that fall on the floor back on the grill.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    7. Re:Complex task vs. low wages by danila · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Marshal Brain agrees. He argues that fast-food workers (and service workers in general) will be one of the first major professions to be automated next (in the next few decades).

      --
      Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
    8. Re:Complex task vs. low wages by magefile · · Score: 1

      Erm ... they aren't autonomous, they still need to be controlled by a human operator.

  11. Star wars pod racing Anakin by t_allardyce · · Score: 1

    .. Thats all that needs to be said.

    --
    This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
    1. Re:Star wars pod racing Anakin by AndroidCat · · Score: 1
      I don't think that a remake of Lawrence of Arabia with robots would work as well. Like the candle-snuffing scene:
      Potter: Oh, it damn well hurts.
      Lawrence: Certainly it hurts.
      Potter: Well, what's the trick, then?
      Lawrence: The trick, William Potter, is that I'm a robot. Hahaha, stupid human!
      And I'm not sure about that captured by the turks bit either.
      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    2. Re:Star wars pod racing Anakin by acrylic-apple · · Score: 2

      I would think anyone who truly wishes to have freedom would be against these oppressive, racist tactics on this "fight" against terrorism.

    3. Re:Star wars pod racing Anakin by t_allardyce · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      You're obviously not quite aware that they hate our freedom. Our glorious leader George W Bush was sent here to deliver us from this evil.

      --
      This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
    4. Re:Star wars pod racing Anakin by Necrobruiser · · Score: 1

      http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie =UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2003-36,GGLD:en&q=define%3Asa rcasm

      --
      "I planned within my means and got a fixed rate mortgage, so where's MY bailout?" -cafepress
  12. Actually, we might see cyborgs first... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm betting on seeing regular athletes get cyborged before being replaced by robots outright. Imagine, get an implant, drug tests all come up clean, improved reflexes are less a give-away than overdeveloped musculature from steroid use (assuming you're not being ridiculous about the improvements you're giving yourself), the actual nature of the machinery can be obfuscated away as some necessary thing like a pacemaker...

    1. Re:Actually, we might see cyborgs first... by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 1
      (assuming you're not being ridiculous about the improvements you're giving yourself)

      You assume too much. Of COURSE there would be an arms race in cybernetic enhancements.

      If Mod A can ensure a 110 mph fastball, then the next guy will want a 115 mph fastball, with a curve on it.

    2. Re:Actually, we might see cyborgs first... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah yes no positive drug tests!

      Ha!

      But then try to get thru airport security!

    3. Re:Actually, we might see cyborgs first... by Intron · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I guess you haven't heard about Tommy John surgery. Baseball pitchers have been artificially enhanced for nearly 30 years. Since there's no social stigma about surgery its legal, unlike steroids, which are "drugs".

      --
      Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
  13. This a major blow for parents by Timesprout · · Score: 4, Funny

    One of our best misbehaviour prevention threats has been removed. Now the kids wont believe us when we threaten them with being sold to an arab for a life of camel racing. Please tell me they have not yet developed a camel pooper scooper robot, so at least we can still threaten them with a life of camel dung collection.

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
    1. Re:This a major blow for parents by wed128 · · Score: 0

      Are you kidding me? Camel racing sounds like fun! i wish i had been threatened with that when i was a kid...

  14. Commander Data by Foddrick · · Score: 0

    Call me a Star Trek nerd, but how many sports would an android of Commander Data's ability be awesome at ? I can't think of too many individual sports he could be beaten at... (maybe swimming ??) and he'd be invaluable at the team level. Plus he'd be too altruistic to accept money and he'd just play for your team for free.

    1. Re:Commander Data by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I can't think of too many individual sports he could be beaten at..."

      Precisely the problem. Who would pay money to see that? Who would care? It'd be like taking a motorcycle to a horse-race.

  15. Imagine... by tsa · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Robot camels raced by robots!

    --

    -- Cheers!

    1. Re:Imagine... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Robot camels raced by robots!"

      Cool... and then think, you could have a human ride one of these robot camels!

      then you'd have a dune buggy I suppose.

      meh.

    2. Re:Imagine... by Jakeypants · · Score: 1

      Imagine... (Score:0, Redundant)
      Robot camels raced by robots!

      Kinda gives "redundant" a different meaning than you see on most posts modded redundant.

  16. Motor Racing by moon-monster · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd be quite happy to see robots take over in motor racing. It'd be great to see what kind of machines people could come up with to get themselves round a track as quickly as possible, once all the design concerns related to human safety are removed.

    It's also more practical financially, as in most of the large motor racing series there is already a substantial budget for hardware maintenance. ;-)

    --
    "Pokey, are you drunk on love?" "Yes. Also whiskey. But mostly love... and whiskey."
    1. Re:Motor Racing by KrancHammer · · Score: 1

      once all the design concerns related to human safety are removed.

      I see your point, but having autonomous or semi-autonomous 200+ mph automobiles means I for one will always have design concerns vis-a-vis human safety. I would of course rather have them on the road than 95% of Houston (human?) drivers on the other hand.

      --
      Trolls: The high-tech version of those morons that scrawl obscenities in public bathrooms.
    2. Re:Motor Racing by JahToasted · · Score: 1

      Yeah and you could design some crazy tracks as well. Of course you couldn't allow spectators at the track, too many are killed by tyres flying off the vehicles as it is.

  17. Yah, but... by JustOK · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sure they can run camels, but can they run linux?

    --
    rewriting history since 2109
  18. But who's... by seven+of+five · · Score: 0

    ..gonna monitor them for steroids?

  19. Problem ahead? by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 2, Funny

    Has anyone asked the camels what they think of this? Large evil beasts might not take to kindly to having robotic jockey overlords.

    1. Re:Problem ahead? by wootest · · Score: 1, Funny

      Maybe people figure that they, for one, would welcome their new robotic jockey overlords.

  20. Why? by CypherXero · · Score: 3, Insightful

    FTFA: "mostly children (some as young as four) who are reportedly abducted or sold by their families to unscrupulous racing-camel owners."

    Why is it that they're so worried about winning some meaningless race with camels? They need their ass kicked for even considering selling a child. I can't understand how cold people can be sometimes to do something like this.

    1. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why is it that they're so worried about winning some meaningless race with camels?

      What are we so worried about a meaningless game such as football?

    2. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I think you read it the wrong way. The parents aren't selling their children because they want some camel to win a race, but because they want to get rid of the child. Selling them to racing-camel owners is just one way of doing it.

    3. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately, third world families have to find ways of feeding themselves, and this is one. I'm not supporting it, but you're being rather precious about the whole subject.

    4. Re:Why? by Lucky+Kevin · · Score: 1
      "They need their ass kicked for even considering selling a child. I can't understand how cold people can be sometimes to do something like this."

      Not cold, just incredibly poor!

      --
      Kevin
      "It's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in" O. Nash
    5. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Because Football is important, damnit. Now, if you'd asked about Baseball or Basketball, I'd agree with you.

      Maybe we can sell them the Yankees as jockeys instead.

    6. Re:Why? by myukew · · Score: 1

      Maybe it's a great honor to be a good camel racer and the parents just want the best for their children. Plus they may get better food/healthcare/education at their new "owner".
      IIRC poor families in Europe sent their gifted children to wealthier people as servants, hoping that they'd had better chances there as with them, like 200-300 years ago.

      --
      See pictures of tits
    7. Re:Why? by JahToasted · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Oh don't act so high and mighty. The clothes you wear, the shoes on your feet, etc, were most likely produced by child labour. But you never stop and think about the poor kid when you buy all that crap from walmart. You make a cold decision based on price alone. You want some poor kid to make your sneakers so you can save five bucks. Just because you rationalise it by say that those kids are far away and believe in a different god than you, doesn't make you a better person then the parents who sell their kids so they don't starve (and probably were promised that their child would be well treated). Compare starving to death to spending $5 more for sneakers. Now who's the bad guy?

    8. Re:Why? by dancingmad · · Score: 1

      I am from Bangladesh, one of the countries really affected by Arabs coming and buying young boys, and obviously you're not from the country.

      I come from an upper middle class family. We are the exception, not the norm in our country. Most people are DESPERATELY poor. Poor enough to injure themselves or their children in order to collect more alms money (the logic being a blind or amputated beggar will get more money than a normal one).

      Furthermore, the people who are involved in this kind of trade often go to places outside of the major cities like Dhaka and Chittagong and will promise families that their kids will have a better life in the Middle East, making money for their families. This is not uncommon; poor Bengalis often go to the Middle East to do the most menial labor (it's almost slavery) to send money back to their families. However, the boy traders are obviously lying and when they get their hands on the children they take them into the sexual abusive and physically abusive world of camel jockeying. Some of the children are too young to even remember what village they come from and can't be taken back home. I believe it was 60 Minutes that had a good feature on the problem a few months back.

      Does that justify any of this? Of course not. But often the family is duped and you don't understand because you probably have not experience the desperate poverty these people live in.

      --
      "There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
    9. Re:Why? by superyooser · · Score: 1

      Abortion is another.

  21. Forget the emotion chip by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1

    "Plus he'd be too altruistic to accept money and he'd just play for your team for free." A lot of the problems with Data are taken care of if you remove that emotion chip and replace it with a Bender chip. To say the least, he becomes a lot more fun at poker parties.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:Forget the emotion chip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just hope that his cheating unit malfunctions, or you'll be going home broke.

  22. I, for one... by AllUsernamesAreGone · · Score: 0

    ... welcome our new camel-riding robotic.. oh, nevermind.

  23. Sci-fi short story on robots by smooth+wombat · · Score: 1

    I've seen several comments from posters posing the question as to how long it will be before robots participate in human sports. These comments reminded me of a short story I had read in years past which involved robots playing football.

    The whole jist was that the robots couldn't have chips which would make them have a will to win. Essentially the robots were supposed to merely run the programmed plays. However, one old guy had found a way to bury such a chip deep inside his teams robots.

    The story ends by one robot plastering another robot to prevent a touchdown. This robot 'dies' as the impact desintegrates the two players.

    Not a particularly exciting story but one which is relevant to the previous comments. Oh, the reason for the robots to be playing football rather than humans was because the game had become too dangerous to play.

    This story was in a Readers Digest-like book I had found at a flea market. Can't remember the name of the story or the author so if someone else can fill in the blanks that would be most appreciative.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  24. Re:I've watched these races before...... by Timesprout · · Score: 1

    Aggregating the two feeds into the "dancing camel belly racing channel" should make for excellent entertainment.

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
  25. Welcome to Cleveland, your excellency. by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1
    "The King of the UAE comes to the Cleveland Clinic (Ohio) when he needs medical care."

    (gets off plane). "Cleveland in Ohio, yes? Such smells, like we do not have in desert! Many pardons. Now when can I meet Drew Carey? And if you please, take me to Great Fame Museum of Rocks.... Please, hotel is nice, and TV is nice too, but add Minaret Channel, and I will be rather pleased."

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:Welcome to Cleveland, your excellency. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You think the UAE is a poor dessert nation?

      Ha!

      Burj dubai = tallest tower in the world
      Dubailand = 2 to 3 times bigger than disneyland
      Mall of Arabia = Biggest mall in the world (in Dubailand)
      Palm Islands = two man-made palm islands
      The World = islands that depict the world when looked from high up the sky

      Google these and see for yourself.

  26. But the strange thing is by DrXym · · Score: 4, Funny

    These "robots" will look curiously like small children wrapped in tinfoil...

  27. robocup by nounderscores · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The goal of robocup: To build a team of robots that can play and beat humans at soccer (possibly without killing the human team)

    My uni has a team competeing.

    We do pretty well at the f180 and abio class comps.

    1. Re:robocup by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1
      (possibly without killing the human team)

      Better make that a requirement. Otherwise you might not find a human team which is willing to play against your robots ...
      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    2. Re:robocup by SEWilco · · Score: 1
      Otherwise you might not find a human team which is willing to play against your robots ...

      Winning by default is a win.

  28. Robots in sports by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    From the summary:

    How long until we see robots take over from humans in other sports?

    Bender: Clem Johnson? That skin bag wouldn't have lasted one pitch in the old Robot Leagues! Now
    Wireless Joe Jackson, there was a blern hitting machine!

    Leela: Exactly! He was a machine designed to hit blerns! I mean come on! Wireless Joe was nothing but a programmable bat on wheels.

    Bender: Oh and I suppose PitchingBot 5000 was just a modified howitzer.

    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

  29. A danger to our industry. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    PETA throwing motor oil? I sure hope not! I work in the rendering plant where we take lambs and bleed them to death in order to provide PETA liquid blood to pour on furs during their protess. They are our biggest client right now.

    1. Re:A danger to our industry. by hoborocks · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Do you bleed paint-based sheep?

      Last I checked, PETA threw red paint at people with furs.

      --
      AccountKiller
    2. Re:A danger to our industry. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      he he. You got mod redundant for spoiling the joke.

    3. Re:A danger to our industry. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I work in the rendering plant where we take lambs and bleed them to death in order to provide PETA liquid blood.

      NOTE TO MODERATORS: PARENT IS BULLSHITTING.

      Everyone knows PETA uses the blood of kittens, not lambs.

    4. Re:A danger to our industry. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not completely true!

      Everyone knows that a secret mixture of kitten and puppy blood provides the best splatter pattern.

      The impact is even more effective when sprayed on people wearing synthetic furs as is usually the case in most attacks by PETA 'activists'.

  30. Re:3.. Profit! by afd8856 · · Score: 1

    Is OCaml used in AI?

    --
    I'll do the stupid thing first and then you shy people follow...
  31. Yeah, that's entertainment by Jameth · · Score: 1

    Let's go to the robotic track-and-field events and watch as robots designed to move quickly while pretending they're humans move quickly. Seriously, watching robots in any human only-sports would be incredibly boring. Robots will shine in sports designed for robots and sports where the primary element is not human (Formula 1, horse racing, camel racing).

  32. How long? by gothzilla · · Score: 1

    Everyone should know that by 2072, robots have completely taken the place of humans in sports. The proof is at the url below.
    http://www.emuviews.com/cgi-local/showss.cgi?FILE= cyberb2p&SC=2

  33. Robots will shine. by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1, Funny
    "Robots will shine in sports..."

    Only when properly buffed and waxed, mind you.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  34. You missed the point by bigattichouse · · Score: 1

    How about having robots replace slaves in general? Heck, the word robot came from the root word for slave in czech. (ala, R.U.R. ) Hmm.. how long before McJobs are replaced?

    --
    meh
    1. Re:You missed the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kudos for spelling Czech correctly, although it should have been capitalized. However, "à la" is two words and needs no comma.

      This comment submitted by Spellmaster 2000.

  35. child jockeys by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
    One in a series of laws was introduced this month to forbid the use of jockeys under the age of 16 from taking part in the sport.

    Now it seems there will be no need for the rules to be flouted, our correspondent says.

    The article says that there are 40000 child jockeys right now. It seems unlikely that they could build enough robots to replace them in less than a few years... Let's hope that this law to forbid child jockeys will be passed and enforced, otherwise it seems unlikely that those childs will be freed anytime soon...
  36. Insurance Policy! by BostonRob · · Score: 1

    If I lived in the United Arab Emirates and I was old, I would invest in a robot insurance policy! They first advertised on SNL about 10 years ago...

    Robot Insurance

    Thanks Old Glory Insurance!

    --
    Big Dig-ing until the money is gone...
  37. Re:Won't be long now... by flewp · · Score: 0

    Some already accuse Michael Schumacher of being an emotionless robot...

    --
    WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
  38. You gotta wonder by Khyber · · Score: 1

    If the camel ever gets tired of the robot rider and spits on it, would the robot rust or short circuit? Man, repairs on those things would have to be insane. Even Dubya might not be able to replace those positronic brains too often!

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  39. Inefficient? by baadger · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why not just make and race robot camels?

    1. Re:Inefficient? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More uncertainty the robots have to deal with than just terrain. They have to react to an animal that does, itself, react.

  40. Already happened by GarbanzoBean · · Score: 1, Informative
    How long until we see robots take over from humans in other sports?"

    Chess, eight years ago.

    1. Re:Already happened by thelexx · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      Chess isn't a sport. A game and a sport are not the same thing. Goodbye to some karma for this one I'm sure.

      --
      "Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world." - Alan Greenspan, 1999
    2. Re:Already happened by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Offtopic huh. Just couldn't stand the truth could you.

  41. Err? Hardly widely used is it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh come on - I've never even heard the phrase. Hardly widespread use it?

    1. Re:Err? Hardly widely used is it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now 100% of the people know it, you were the last one.

    2. Re:Err? Hardly widely used is it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just because you don't see the N-word on the news, doesn't mean its not used often derogatorily.

  42. robot story posters by hachete · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    oh wait...this one's broken. It keeps sending repeats.

    --
    Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
  43. Reality for robots by netman12 · · Score: 3, Funny
    This is just in time! We can let them take over from humans in reality TV shows.

    Survivor 25: twenty robots stranded on a desert island, equipped with only 5 bolts and a single AA battery, battle it out to see who can make it the longest without a change of oil.

  44. What a shame... by Eyeball97 · · Score: 1

    That the headline (snicker) and the overall boggle nature of the story distracts from the issue that only a few have commented on, the abuse of children...

  45. Replacing humans in sports? by Antyrael · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I see a lot of comments regarding the "how long before robots replace humans" comment, but I have to say, is this not a sport where the CAMELS are the athletes? I hardly see this as a case of humans in sports being replaced; as some other poster mentioned, if underfed kids were the original jockeys, then this is a boon more than anything.

    The way I see it, humans won't be "replaced" in sports that actually require the humans to be the athletes for a long, long time. Perhaps, when the technology is far enough, robot-run variants may spring up, but I have a strong feeling the human versions will still be around.

    --
    Expectations are for the unprepared.
    1. Re:Replacing humans in sports? by JahToasted · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Exactly, The attraction to sports is the "look what a man can do" factor. Also there is the identifying with the athlete part of it. Nobody can indentify with a robot very easily.

      The point of camle racing is gambling, no one much cares about the jockeys (else they would probably not keep the kids malnourished), so replacing them is not a problem.

    2. Re:Replacing humans in sports? by anoemus_cowherd · · Score: 1

      Headline 5 years from now:
      Robots replace camels in robot-jockeyed camel races.
      Soon after:
      Robots replace human spectators of robot-jockeyed robot races.

  46. I mean, really! by ABaumann · · Score: 1, Funny

    Has anyone asked the camels how they feel about this?

  47. We will know by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1
    "Heck, the word robot came from the root word for slave in czech. (ala, R.U.R. ) Hmm.. how long before McJobs are replaced?"

    We will have some idea this is going on when we start finding metal fingers in our Wendy's chili.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  48. Humans vs. Robots by Valthezeh · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I could be wrong, but I don't really think there will be a big push to replace humans with robots in most sports. Maybe as a cool, project/aside from traditional sports, as robots are capable of doing things that humans aren't and it would provide a challenge to those interested AI, but not replacing persay.

    One of the things most people who enjoy sports like is the ability to relate to the players, and the fact that they can aspire to be like them or view them as role models, etc. This aspect of sports would be lost if the players were robots instead of humans.

  49. Helps the welfare of the Jockeys how? by Bertrum · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So they are currently fed little to keep them light. Exactly how much food do you think they will get once they aren't earning money for the arse who owns them by riding camels.
    My guess is the amount of food won't go up!

    1. Re:Helps the welfare of the Jockeys how? by Valthezeh · · Score: 1

      Well one would hope that without a demand for children to use as jockeys, they wouldn't be kidnapped in the first place...

  50. I'll be goddamned honest by ZosX · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The only reason you posted this comment was to work in the phrase "niggar", which makes you look blatently racist and like a bad speller.

    You're no Dave Chapelle, that's for damn sure.

    --
    zosxavius photography
    1. Re:I'll be goddamned honest by AtariAmarok · · Score: 0, Offtopic
      "...the phrase "niggar", which makes you look blatently racist and like a bad speller"

      I wondered about that too. I bet that if you ask the guy "Spell K.K.K.", he will get it wrong.

      --
      Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  51. Hardly new by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2, Informative
    I was hoping to see autonomous robots ride these camels. However:
    "The mechanical jockey is light in weight and receives orders from the instructor via a remote control system fixed on the back of the camel," the daily Gulf News said, quoting an official statement.
    I remember reading about something similar yeeaaars ago; the Japanese developed a remotely controlled robot that was light enough to ride a pony, allowing them to hold indoor pony races.
    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  52. A first in outsourcing by carcosa30 · · Score: 1

    Imagine that! Automation takes away the job of a camel jockey.

    Poetic justice.

    --
    Intolerance for ambiguity is the mark of the authoritarian personality.
    1. Re:A first in outsourcing by radish · · Score: 1

      Imagine that! Automation takes away the job of a camel jockey.

      Poetic justice.

      Imagine that! A post on slashdot from an idiot who obviously has no idea what they're talking about. A few points:

      1) The UAE (where much camel racing occurs) is not really in the outsourcing business.
      2) India, which is one of the biggest players in the outsourcing game, has no camels, or camel racing.
      3) If you looked at a map (which had places other than the US on it), you'd see the two countries in question are some distance apart.
      4) The "job" in question is the occupation of a kidnapped, enslaved and malnourished child. I, for one, am glad that this "job" has been taken away. If you were human (and not such a moron), maybe you would be too.

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

    2. Re:A first in outsourcing by sunya · · Score: 1

      You are right, mostly. India has a desert (the Thar desert in Rajasthan), and camels. But no camel racing, afaik. The kind described in TFA is restricted to oil rich Arabia.

      --
      MLT - simple and robust open source multimedia framework for Linux
    3. Re:A first in outsourcing by carcosa30 · · Score: 1

      Imagine that! A slashdot post from a literalminded dumbfuck! A point:

      1) Shut the fuck up and go back to World of Warcraft, nerdbait.

      --
      Intolerance for ambiguity is the mark of the authoritarian personality.
  53. Another possibility? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... children (some as young as four) who are reportedly abducted or sold by their families to unscrupulous racing-camel owners.

    Now camel racers can skip the middle man and send their robot minions to abduct the kids directly?

  54. GAA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What goes through their heads? Is it a low margin sport so the camel owners are poor as dirt? Or is it like horse racing where a good camel is a pretty decent investment? If so how does the thought enter into someones mind, "You know.. I should kidnap children and feed them next to nothing to win the next big race"

    1. Re:GAA by radish · · Score: 1

      It's a hugely wealthy sport watched (and run) buy oil billionares. It's accepted practise that kids are the jockies because of their weight, and the prize money is high enough to bend many people's morals.

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

  55. Kids die doing this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >> What surprises me is that a relatively complex task in an area where human wages are fairly low should justify the replacement of humans by robots, and yet in countries where wages are sky high, human workers are doing much simpler tasks.

    The reason you want robots to do this not kids is that the kids get badly injured (kidney failure + internal heamoraging) and sometimes die.

    This is actually a really good thing. Less dead kids 'cus you have a robot doing the job is kind of cool.

  56. Actually, you're correct... by blueZ3 · · Score: 2, Informative

    From Wikipedia:

    The sport has its origins in an exercise for Norwegian soldiers. The first known competition took place in 1767 when border patrol companies competed against each other. Gradually the sport became more common throughout Scandinavia as an alternative training for the military. Called military patrol, the combination of skiing and shooting was demonstrated at the Olympic Winter Games in 1924, 1928, 1936 and 1948, but did not gain Olympic recognition then, as the small number of competing countries disagreed on the rules (see also Governing body, below).

    The first World Championship in the sport was held in 1958 in Austria, and in 1960 the sport was finally included in the Olympic Games.

    --
    Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
  57. Baseball already has this by benhocking · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There are two types of enhancment surgeries open to baseball players: laser eye surgery and Tommy John surgery. The first one is fairly ubiquitous and currently not very scrutinized. Improve your vision and you are better able to see what the pitcher is throwing your way. The second almost seems like a response to the first: they drill holes in your arm bones, figure-eight your tendons, and suddenly the pitcher can pitch better than he ever has before. Currently, AFAIK, the latter is only done on "injured" pitchers, but as my scare quotes are meant to indicate, the threshold for what injured means seems to be getting lower.

    --
    Ben Hocking
    Need a professional organizer?
  58. When will we see... by jjboyd · · Score: 1

    ... robots replace humans in sports? When a robot can hit a 90 mph slider and then track and catch a line-drive by jumping over a wall. In other words, not very soon.

  59. Most sports will never be taken over by robots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am amazed by the fact that people actually think sports will be taken over by robots. While I agree this may happen in some cases, I think people are missing the point of sports.

    Sport are a way for people to compete against each other. And, while controlling/programming robots maybe competition, it's too abstract for most people to enjoy. Sports includes a lot of human drama, people playing injured, people sacrificing for a greater good. These are things that will be completely missing if we added robots into the mix.

    While I think some sports maybe affected by automation, I think it's far more likely that new sports will be invented that include them. Think about how little boxing has changed in the last 100 years. I mean, how a fighter prepares has changed greatly, and things like cut treatment have advanced greatly, but overall the sport remains unaltered.

  60. Maybe they could replace the fans... by Belial6 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'd rather see them replace the fans with robots. Then we can stop listening to people yelling about how they are number 1, because some millionair that couldn't care whether they live or die, made a touchdown.

  61. Evil Western Influence by liquid-groove · · Score: 2, Funny

    Damn the yankee imperialist dogs for their evil Western influence. How dare they destroy a time honored tradition of selling children into bondage.

    When will the West learn that their technology and influence is against the will of Allah?

  62. Poor grammar again. by StrawberryFrog · · Score: 1

    Learn the difference between "Camel riding robots" and "Camel-riding Robots". The hypen makes quite a difference; in "Camel riding robots" the robots will have to welcome their new camel overlord.

    --

    My Karma: ran over your Dogma
    StrawberryFrog

  63. NHL by jhines · · Score: 1

    The owners of the National Hockey League are drooling over the idea of non-union robot players.

    I can hear it now, "Hydraulic fluid on ice".

  64. Ahhhhhhh...ROBOTS are doing the riding by joetheappleguy · · Score: 1

    Camel riding robots, not camel riding robots.

    I just woke up and for a few seconds there I had some weird visions of just how they would design robots for camels to ride on.

    Got it.

  65. fast food by bluGill · · Score: 2, Interesting

    10 years ago (when I worked there) McDonald's was testing a robot fry cook. At the time it was too expensive. However they took one part of the cook and installed that everywhere: a robot to fill the fry baskets.

    Fast Food kitchens are a good place for robots. People should not work near hot grease, because of the danger of burns. (One guy I worked with was hospitalized due to burns from cleaning the vats. After that everyone started using the provided gloves)

  66. Re:I for one welcome by Leadhyena · · Score: 1

    As long as they're not mutated of course... then we'd have to pull out our spaceships and blast the hell out of them.

  67. Child pornography/abuse/... by elgatozorbas · · Score: 1

    Compare it to child pornography. No reasonable man would lend his children for something like that too. But when you have more children than money, maybe people tend to become unreasonable.

  68. Force-choking... by raam · · Score: 1

    ...we won't be seeing any of these displaced kinder-jockeys force-choking people and displaying bad fashion sense in the next twenty years, will we?

  69. George Bush's Robotic Army by dunc78 · · Score: 1

    I was just waiting for somebody to post that this is really a way for George Bush to develop a robotic army to patrol the middle east.

  70. Look on the brught side by elgatozorbas · · Score: 1

    You can still threaten them with being outsourced...

  71. I can already see it... by InsaneCreator · · Score: 2, Funny

    Bend it like soccer unit 3500-4X!

  72. I saw it on The Jetsons first! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Robo-Football!

  73. Pure Karma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now what will black people do for employment?

  74. Next thing you know... by Igloodude · · Score: 1

    They'll take all the children out of the Battlebot competitions and make the robots run by remote control.

    --
    We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.
  75. DARPA Grand Challenge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Any chance of entering a camel plus its robot jockey in the DARPA Grand Challenge? The camel would be ideally suited to desert conditions and, based on a quick look at the 2005 proposed rules, there's nothing to rule it out (depending on how you define 'vehicle').

  76. When will the robots take over? by mwkohout · · Score: 1

    Apparently, you've never heard of John Madden.

  77. Star Wars, Episode II -- Attach of the Clones. by mmell · · Score: 1
    Obi-Wan and Anaken have entered the (alien) sports-bar looking for the assassin. Look at the televisors in the background. 'Droids playing (American) football!

    Apologies to the rest of the world, who know that "football" is really a game played only with the feet -- what we Americans call "soccer".

  78. Define a sport by tepples · · Score: 1

    Chess isn't a sport. A game and a sport are not the same thing.

    Basketball isn't a sport. A game and a sport are not the same thing.

    Ernest Hemingway believed in only three sports: climbing, bullfighting, and racing.

  79. corrections by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    civil war wasnt about slavery it only became about slavery half way through. The europeans were going to acknowlege the south so the north abolished slavery. The European powers would never favour a state that allows slavery over a non slave state. Also in the 1950s blacks werent considered legally subhuman even in the south it was "seperate but equal". In practical terms it was subhuman tho.

  80. Fast food by JavaRob · · Score: 1

    I think it would have been much less disturbing if you found a chunk of metal in your Wendy's chili, for example...

    There's a job in the Wendys food creation process someplace that could *really* use some robotic automation.