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Camel-Riding Robots
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?"
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.
20 rubees on Robo-Akmed!
I do believe this is the stupidest story I've ever seen posted here.
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...
Wait until People for the Ethical Treatment of Robots starts throwing oil on the camels in protest!
I'm a big tall mofo.
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...
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
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."
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.
These "robots" will look curiously like small children wrapped in tinfoil...
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.
From the summary:
How long until we see robots take over from humans in other sports?
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
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.
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.
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!
...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.
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.
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.
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.
> 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
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.
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!