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Hitchhiking Robot's Cross-Country Trip Ends In Philadelphia
An anonymous reader writes: A hitchhiking robot that successfully traveled across Canada in 26 days last year and parts of Europe, has met its demise in Philly. Created as a "social experiment," hitchBOT started its journey in the U.S. in Marblehead, Massachusetts, on July 17 with its thumb raised up and tape wrapped around its head that read "San Francisco or bust." After about two weeks in the U.S., someone in Philadelphia damaged the robot beyond repair. "Sadly, sadly it's come to an end," said Frauke Zeller, one of its co-creators. The Independent reports: "The robot was designed to be a talking travel companion and could toss out factoids and carry limited conversation. A GPS in the robot tracked its location, and a camera randomly snapped photos about every 20 minutes to document its travels."
Hitchhiking human's Cross-Country Trip Ends In 01
Unfortunately the less fortunate in other countries have more respect for something than our country. Thanks asshole.
Too bad it was damaged beyond repair, I'm curious around the real circumstances as to how it became that way? Anybody have a better link than the TFA?
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Of course it was ruined in Philly
The article mentions a blog, but there's no link to it. The article mentions that the "robot" took a photo every 20 minutes but there's not a single photo to show us.
It's like the Internet is only able to use text for articles and things like photos, animations and videos are the exclusive domain of advertisers.
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There are laws against hitchhiking in many states because it is considered dangerous. Many people are killed each year from it. While l personally think this is a great social experiment, the outcome should not be unexpected. While most of us would love to pick up a hitchhiking robot, robots have yet to their respect and place among humans.
"Hitchhiking is dangerous so we make it illegal, that way if you hitchhike in our state the police will taze you, rob you and put you in a cell with Bubba. Have a nice day."
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
>> tape wrapped around its head that read "San Francisco or bust."
Option 2. Mission accomplished, right?
But "it's for your own good, citizen!" Has long been a favorite excuse for the application of restrictive and revenue-creating laws! We can't break the tradition.
Here's a story with a picture of the robot back when he was in good health, as well as a picture of the now deceased robot:
http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com...
That was a douche move. Thanks, Philly, for showing the world how classy we are.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
They probably thought it was a bicycle, Philly is an awful place for bike theft and destruction.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
the outcome should not be unexpected
And there is the problem. Have we sunk so low that it should be expected that our society will not be civil? The robot made it safely across canada and parts of europe. It spent a week with a heavy metal band, people respected it.
Two weeks in america and its defiled. Makes me emberrased.
Wow, that Minnesota dentist gets around doesn't he? He can now boast one more unique "taking". He is a true sportsman, he picks as target only things that has the same level of intelligence as him.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
America is not ready to join the civilized world. It must be the trauma of their 9/11. A spell was cast that drove off all the humanity and left only the death eaters You all are right, I don't belong here. Such a sad place paradise has become. I cry as I post this.
Philly needs electronics!
The creators were sent an image of the vandalized robot Saturday but couldn't track its location because the battery is dead. They said they don't know who destroyed it or why.
The perpetrators of this vandalism probably were bored, undereducated, underachieving young WHITE male(s). The definition of 'nigger' has changed; it has to do with how you think and act, not the color of your skin. Ironically, racist pieces of shit who go around calling black people 'niggers' are the ones who are the real niggers in the world, because they're largely who are perpetuating so-called race-related problems.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Alot of racial talk here. But we're missing the 1 probable suspect. Some drunk moron from the local college university. Always something idiot student in my city caught doing vandalism usually when walking home from bar/party.
That doesn't sound like vandalism to me, it sounds like plain theft. I know the article wanted to pain this person as "terrible" to fit with the snappy title, but it's more likely that this person was just desperate and found some electronics to steal. According to the USDA there's close to 7 million households in the US that go hungry once in a while because they don't have a reliable income.
Yeah, keep lying to yourself, skippy.
There are some days I really hate living here. This is a morals tale like Short Circuit. Ih I had known the bot was here I would have driven it around for few days and maybe have turned it over to my ingress brethren to get it on it's way... farking arse holes....
~corporate tool, but employed~
And was set upon by a gang of cheap Windows Vista laptops that had been lounging around glomming the free WiFi. It was found face down behind the diner, stripped of all data, with its USB port full of viruses.
Ironically, racist pieces of shit who go around calling black people 'niggers' are the ones who are the real niggers in the world, because they're largely who are perpetuating so-called race-related problems.
I'm glad you agree that Rap Artists are a big part of the problem.
The perpetrators of this vandalism probably were bored, undereducated, underachieving young WHITE male(s)
You have any facts to back that up or is this just speculation?
Blacks are more commonly convicted when tried, and there are still more whites than blacks in philly, so it's probably still more likely. Also, consider that whites may have felt more likely to get away with such a crime.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
i guess to robot failed the ocular patdown.
lose != loose
http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com...
Damaging what amounts to someone's garbage is a crime?
For the Canada trip they outfitted it with a pleasing personality and the robot made it across the country. For the US trip they should have outfitted it with a sidearm and live ammo. Just how we roll here.....
Hey, we're not bored, we're just freezing!
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Admittedly, there has been the same problem with Fibreglass cows in Europe. A touring exhibition of fibreglass cows was vandalized in Dublin and Paris.
Of course, the root of the verb "to vandalize" comes from the Vandals that sacked Rome implying that it is by no means a modern issue. In other words: there has always been some fuckwit to ruin it for everybody.
What do you mean? African or European coal?
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"We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better... stronger... faster."
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did you miss the part where it successfully traveled across Canada and parts of Europe?
Yes, this social experiment did tell us lots...
What about 'thug'. Can non-blacks say 'thug'? Am I wrong to type 'black'? Should it be 'African-American' instead? Or People of Color?
Who cares who abused the robot? Why wasn't the robot armed? Why didn't the robot dial 911?
We all knew the robot was going to be molested somewhere during the US trip.
Some people can just really milk a joke for a long time.
Bot travels the Internet, trolling for corrosive hatred, and hits paydirt on Slashdot.
hitchBot was probably last seen alive on the BFvsGF channel on Youtube (vlog channel for PrankVsPrank). Near the end of the video they gave him a ride to the bench where he was probably picked up by the bad guys. Too bad they didn't trust the taxi driver to take him to New York.
Where are you getting your facts? Philadelphia is not more white than black.
Or sounds like a bored kid crime race neutral to me though.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Nah, it's just that most Americans are uneducated and violent, regardless of their skin colour.
Cesspool? Where do you live? Philly is frequently rated as one of the best places to visit in the U.S, has some of the best restaurants/chefs in the world, and has a thriving tech scene. If you can't understand the probability of having someone vandalize something in a big city on the side of the road for the lulz then you are clueless.
Just more proof that some Americans are evil
"In Philadelphia, it's worth fifty bucks". They should definitely search the pawn shops for any valuable parts that match.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
You tell someone they're this and that and they're bad long enough, and guess what happens? They start believing it, especially when that's all you heard your entire life since you were a little kid. We see now they've started turning it around into some sort of virtue. You see a similar phenomenon in the whole fat acceptance movement, and that's fucked-up too. Us white people made black people what they are today, we're the original perpetrators of that, and now they've been told they're this-and-that-and-bad for so long that they actually believe it themselves. So they act accordingly. Which just makes racist white people feel justified in their attitudes towards black people. Which continues the whole goddamned vicious circle. What did you think was going to happen?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
No one who knows Philly can be surprised that the robot died there.
Not likely to be white in that area of Philly. Still racist are racist
OMG Ponies!!! with Glitter!!!! I miss Pink
Same thing would have happened to Will Smith if his parents hadn't sent him to Bel Air.
plus there is the whole slavery/legislated inequality/terrorize thing; The grandpa of my neighbor was owned. Mike has shared stories his Grampa told him when young about what it was like as a teenage slave making rope in the winter. We're not that many generations removed from slavery. Not to mention that blacks were the subjects of highly effective terror campaigns where thousands of blacks were tortured, maimed, and murdered with impunity for nearly 80 years. Ida Wells famously pointed out these terror campaigns (lynching / murder) often successfully killed and terrorized blacks that competed with whites (in business and women). Paired with the state government effectively blocks on black success via jim crow and segregation post-reconstruction, it isn't surprising the kind of situation w're in. During this approximately 80 year span we had white families taking advantage of extremely generous government programs that got them land, job training, and college degrees, to name a few of the advantages that have given rise to the predominately white middle class. Meanwhile effective terror and government campaigns caused widespread chaos, emigration, and continued subjugation of black communities. This isn't white guilt, this is simply a recognition of what has brought us to this point and our failure to ever deal with it in a conclusive manner as a country. Like we failed to actually fully rectify most social problems that have been hilariously exaggerated over the last ~190 years by the comical progression of US society.
All big cities have good neighborhoods. The difficult and important thing is to find a big city without bad neighborhoods. Philly fails that test, as does any big city dominated by leftists (generally Democrats.)
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
It's probably the only thing that sports fans from New York and Boston agree on; Filthydelphia sucks. This is where Santa was pelted with snowballs by Eagles fans after all...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Martin? Is that you? What are you doing in that timeline? Hurry up an get back on the Heart of Gold before Earth gets blown up to make way for the hyperspatial express route. Gosh, you'll probably go on and on about how you were mistreated for years....
-Zaphod
Also it probably doesn't help that all through recorded Human history (and likely even way before that) slavery of one type or another was considered an acceptable way of life; you wage war on someone and conquer them, you enslave their people. How about during the industrial revolution? Or before women's rights? One could plausibly argue that these were forms of slavery, and there was even less excuse for it because it's not like they were 'some other race' or 'some other people', it was the same people from the same country. Even today there is slavery of various forms going on in the world, from as awful as the so-called 'islamic state' enslaving the women and children of the areas they take control of, to sex trafficking (even using children), to some countries where child labor for pitiful wages is a standard business practice. And people wonder why it is that I sometimes say 'humans are not actually civilized'; how can you say they are when there's still these sorts of things going on in the world?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Guy in the video looks pretty white to me. Maybe you mean the bullshit that white dudes who are sick in the head go on about while they do evil:
http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/heres-video-of-the-jerk-who-killed-hitchbot-1721797093
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
..and right on cue the racist pieces of shit of /. mod me right down into the ground, how fucking predictable. Like a friend of mine says, the age of the Great White Male is coming to an end; get over it and move on or prepare to be obsoleted.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Some surveillance video is out finally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...