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Philadelphia Hackers and Others Offer Brotherly Love To Fallen Robot

Posted by samzenpus on from the we-can-rebuild-him dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Since a hitchhiking robot was destroyed in Philadelphia over the weekend, there has been an overwhelming show of support according to its co-creators Frauke Zeller and David Smith. Makers from all over Philly have reached out and offered to help rebuild the robot. "We'll say that at this moment, if we get the OK from the creators to repair or replace the needed parts for HitchBOT, we'll be happy to do so," wrote Georgia Guthrie, executive director for a local makerspace called The Hacktory. "If not, we understand and we may just build ourselves a HitchBot2 to send along on its journey. We feel it's the least we can do to let everyone, especially the Robot community, know that Philly isn't so bad."

26 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. American Cities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why are American cities such rotten, dangerous hellholes? In Europe, (well Western Europe), nothing would have happened to this robot and the people would have simply have been amused by it.

    I really don't understand USA. Is the government of these cities so poor?

    1. Re:American Cities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      How European of you to presume that 1) American cities are rotten and 2) that the government is to blame for the actions of individuals.

    2. Re:American Cities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Blaming government? Hardly. How American of you to presume the government is not a reflection of the citizens it represents. And if you don't think that American cities are cesspools compared to their European counterparts, you *really* need to get out more.

    3. Re:American Cities by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The robot will *always* have been vandalised. That is the only end condition. It is a social experiment, to see if the robot gets vandalised, which runs until it happens. The experiment can be viewed as:

      while !robot.IsVandalised() {
        if robot.NeedsRepair() {
          community.Repair(robot)
        } // do nothing
      }
      community.ExpressOutrageAtHumanity()

      This only proves "at least one person will vandalise a (reports indicate already-broken) robot". We already knew that.

      --
      -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
    4. Re:American Cities by afeeney · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Of course, western Europeans never vandalize. Especially not things of special interest or value.

    5. Re:American Cities by cayenne8 · · Score: 2

      You're kidding, right? Sure, there is probably a greater chance of such a thing happening in the USA, but there are plenty of vandalas, morons, and drunk idiots in western Europe too, and it's perfectly likely that some such people would do something similar given the chance. Don't try to make out like Europe is a paradise of civility.

      Hey, It's not like the robot got shot or anything....

      :D

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  2. Re:Where is it? by TheCycoONE · · Score: 3

    Based on the CBC radio interview this morning (I haven't RTFA) they are still missing the head. Also there is conflicting information about where the parts were found.

  3. Thug culture is to blame. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In the United States, there is something called "thug culture". It glorifies things like not getting any sort of a useful education, not getting a legitimate job, joining gangs, engaging in violence, engaging in the abuse and peddling of drugs, engaging in the abusive use of guns, committing theft, committing robbery, committing murder, and so forth. Rap music is one of the main ways that this culture is glorified and promoted in the media.

    This is the kind of culture that resulted in the destruction of this robot. It's also the kind of culture that results in its participants attacking police officers, then getting shot by these officers when they have to defend themselves from violence.

    The worst part, though, is that many Americans refuse to acknowledge (although they do know it to be true) that this is a rotten, degenerate culture. In fact, they blame everybody but the thugs for the situation that the thugs are in! According to these apologists, it isn't the thugs' faults that they totally rejected all of the free education provided to them and refuse to participate in legitimate society. And according to them the police should just stand there and allow these thugs to violently attack them. As long as these apologists keep on defending what really is an indefensibly terrible culture, we'll keep seeing incidents like this where police are maliciously attacked, and things like this travelling robot are unnecessarily destroyed.

    1. Re:Thug culture is to blame. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In the US, "freedom" is a legal right.
      Outside US, "freedom" is a moral right.
      The difference is that outside US, people don't defend being a dick by claiming "freedom".

    2. Re:Thug culture is to blame. by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Literally everything you said is the moral standards of the ruling class except for 'drugs' read 'pharmaceuticals', for 'robbery' read 'arbitrage', and well, I guess nothing else need be changed.

      Now, now, that's not true at all! The rich don't usually do their own dirty work. They drive other people into poverty, and then have them do it in order to try to survive. That way, they can keep the blood off of their own suit.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Thug culture is to blame. by JMJimmy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Umm, no. It was a couple douchebag "pranksters" looking for fame. The culprits are Jesse Wellens & Ed Bassmaster, the last people to pick up the hitchbot & the ones who released this fake video: https://twitter.com/CBCNews/st... You can tell its fake because Google maps shows there's no surveillance cameras in the area (confirmed the local Fox News affiliates) and the angle is too low. What they did was stage it, they left the bot in one place (shown on local news footage) but later returned to stage the publicity stunt using their own camera & adding effects to the video to make it look more like security footage. Like so: https://twitter.com/JMJimmy1/s... Fortunately they're complete idiots and people saw through it right away. Not only did they recognize Ed Bassmaster in the video, they noticed his truck parked across the street. Meanwhile they've generated hundreds of thousands of views on various YouTube videos to rake in $$$ for their vandalism.

    4. Re:Thug culture is to blame. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It works so well, sometimes we call 'em 'bankers' and 'republicans' and 'capitalists'.
      Uh huh. So favorite your 'group' got called out for being douches you want to sling names. Nice. Look to yourself as to what is wrong. You want to divide and classify instead of unify and help.

      Or you could like this republican, and help these thugs become ex thugs. They see my wealth and want it. I teach them how to get it. An earned dollar is more precious than a stolen one. An earned dollar I can proudly spend. A stolen one I have to hide that I have it. People do not realize that America IS the land of opportunity. Our poorest poor are usually much better off than many 3rd world countries. If you sit around and make excuses you get nothing. If you DO something you may actually get something or nothing. But you at least tried and have a plan for next time.

      I have had people tell me I am nuts for not living off of the free food centers around here. I mean really argue and yell at me about it. I tell them I leave that food and donate that food for people who need it. I have had people ask me to commit fraud to enable their thug life. I flat out refuse then show them all the things they are doing wrong. Eventually they realize I am right. They then come back and I show them how to live a better life.

      Many are there in this life because they do not even conceive of a better life. They believe they are the worst dregs of life because people like you tell them they are. I show them they are doing wrong and making their own lives worse AND show them how to get out. They are just people who have made bad decisions and have had bad decisions made for them. Bad decisions are like a thousand little cuts and each one digs deeper. Each one makes it harder to be better.

      But people like you make the problem even WORSE. You point to someone else and say 'but they are doing worse'. Who the F cares? Well you do. But that sort of mentality is 4th grade mentality. Little Billy got to spit at little Sara and nothing happened so why do you punish ME?! Well we are not talking about little Billy are we Chris?

      You point at 'republicans' as 'evil'. I point to greed and pride as evil. Both 'parties' are equally guilty of it. You point to the 1% and call them republicans. Never mind the top of that class self call themselves democrats. When you come down off your high horse you can get to work and help the rest of us make this a great world to live in.

    5. Re:Thug culture is to blame. by stdarg · · Score: 2

      This article (http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150803_Should_hitchBOT_live_on_.html) describes them as "Two Philadelphia-area pranksters with millions of online followers"

      If their pranks involve filming themselves vandalizing things, is it really inaccurate to describe them as part of thug culture? If not in their day-to-day lives, at least their online personas?

      The article also includes a quote from one of them: ""Cops tryin to blame Always Teste," Bassmaster tweeted earlier today."

      That sounds pretty thuggy.

  4. It will never work by AndyKron · · Score: 2

    Try as you might you will never erase this country's image of Philly being a scum sucking cesspool of human flesh for killing the Hitchbot.

    1. Re:It will never work by PPH · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This is true. But then I'd expect that 99.44% to just drive by and leave it alone. And HitchBOT isn't like my friend's Bentley that keeps getting keyed because, "Rich people suck".

      Ths was a demonstration of pure sociopathy. And I'm surprised that law enforcement doesn't set up occasional stings to catch this kind of behavior. The resulting penalty doesn't have to be much. But get these people 'on the books' so that when they apply for a weapons permit or a license as a teacher, there is a red flag on their record.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  5. Stockholm Syndrome's a bitch, isn't it? by barc0001 · · Score: 2

    >We feel it's the least we can do to let everyone, especially the Robot community, know that Philly isn't so bad.

    Philly has a well known reputation and the fact that you're even talking about replacing HitchBot to demonstrate that it's rep is wrong is willfully ignoring it. If the reputation wasn't correct, you wouldn't need to replace the bot.

    1. Re:Stockholm Syndrome's a bitch, isn't it? by VorpalRodent · · Score: 2

      All I know is that West Philadelphia is bad enough that people are leaving to live with wealthy relatives in Bel Air.

      --
      Take it to the limit, everybody to the limit, come on, everybody fhqwhgads.
  6. Trim your damned URLs ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Informative

    Come on guys, what the hell are you doing posting URLs with so much tracking crap embedded in it?

    The third URL is arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2015/08/we-can-rebuild-him-philadelphia-hackers-offer-brotherly-love-to-fallen-robot/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+(Ars+Technica+-+All+content)

    And the entirety of "?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+(Ars+Technica+-+All+content)" is just tracking crap which shouldn't even be incluced.

    Are you guys getting affiliate clicks? Or are you just too damned lazy to not give us URLs full of this crap?

    To the guys offering to fix this, kudos and good on 'ya.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  7. I don't think it should be fixed! by DarkOx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hitchbot has a technology component yes, but its hardly state of the art anything, except maybe in 'art' were we might call it avant garde.

    Hitchbot if anything was a work of performance or installation art and the show is over. It traveled a lot of miles elicited a lot of responses, many very positive, some negative and finally one vicious and destructive. That is its story. It the work of its creators and we should of course respect their wishes for the project but I think we gain more insight in considering the run it had rather than extending it forever.

    Hitchbot is something that can be put back together, but this world is full of things that can't. Even rebuilding / recreating hitchbot won't reproduce the creative moment when some person had the idea to make a hitch hiking robot.

    --
    Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    1. Re:I don't think it should be fixed! by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Fixing it or not fixing it has no effect on its value as a piece of artwork, or as a cultural icon. If it doesn't get a new head, that is a statement of a sort. If it does get a new head, it's a different statement, but it's no more or less valid. It's just what happened.

      There's no particular reason to follow or not follow the wishes of the creators, either. They put it out in the world and left it to its own devices. It belongs to all of us now.

      I say fix it, slap it on the ass, and send it on its way

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  8. Re:Where is it? by JMJimmy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Unreal that this is still going on. It's FAKED. They shot the "surveillance" footage themselves: https://twitter.com/JMJimmy1/s... - they stole the head and left the dismembered body behind to generate clicks & views.

  9. Walnut and 16th St by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 5, Funny

    This should have been the neighborhood where the robot landed. It's near UPenn and has an Apple store, but it also hosts a significant population of Linux Orthodox. Either group would have given him shelter, fresh downloaded updates and a pint of RustOleum for the road. Instead he ended up in the Windows part of town. Had he looked around and seen the graffitoed blue screen stop codes all over the walls, he could still have taken a bus to safety with his remaining Bitcoin. Situational awareness, people!

  10. Re:Self defense? by Megane · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm waiting for HitchBot5 because it'll be ALIVE! (and with a frickin' laser, too)

    NO DISASSEMBLE!

    --
    #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  11. Re:Where is it? by JMJimmy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    To clarify, "They" are Jesse Wellens & Ed Bassmaster.

  12. Re:Where is it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I would mod this up. There's also video evidence showing that Bassmaster was wearing the same shirt earlier as the guy in the video who destroyed the robot.

    If there are any just desserts in this world, CMT would pull Bassmaster's upcoming TV program for this meanspirited act of vandalism.

  13. Re:Where is it? by gurnec · · Score: 2

    Certainly looks staged, I agree.

    For example, why is the sky pitch black despite it purportedly being 5:45 AM (well into civil twilight, just 15 min. before full sunrise)?

    The remaining question is: are they small d-bags (staged a fake destruction after some unknown party performed the actual destruction) or big ones (did the actual destruction themselves)? I'd guess the former—in an effort to make others look foolish, that seems to be more their M.O., but the latter wouldn't surprise me all that much either....