What if it were programmed to recognize marijuana plants? According to an NPR story I heard this week, Columbia is shifting to manual uprooting to destroy drug crops, because spraying the revolutionaries' crops from the air is fairly ineffective and problematic both politically and health-wise. This is very dangerous work. Dozens of workers have already been killed, mostly by booby traps set by militants. Robots would probably be more expensive, but at least if they get blown up, no one has lost a family member.
The article probably frustrated the researchers - and certainly misled most of the slashdotters - by fixating on the idea of a hug. I'm not sure how it would work for people suffering from anxiety, but for people with autism, what they want is specifically a calming pressure without the stressful-for-them element of human emotions. Definitely not a hug.
I'd like to know what Dr. Grandin thinks of the vest. By the way, she is a consultant on slaughterhouse design because she knows how to build them so that they are less stressful for the cattle than conventional ones. Think empathy, not sadism or callousness.
Slashdot Mirror
What if it were programmed to recognize marijuana plants? According to an NPR story I heard this week, Columbia is shifting to manual uprooting to destroy drug crops, because spraying the revolutionaries' crops from the air is fairly ineffective and problematic both politically and health-wise. This is very dangerous work. Dozens of workers have already been killed, mostly by booby traps set by militants. Robots would probably be more expensive, but at least if they get blown up, no one has lost a family member.
The article probably frustrated the researchers - and certainly misled most of the slashdotters - by fixating on the idea of a hug. I'm not sure how it would work for people suffering from anxiety, but for people with autism, what they want is specifically a calming pressure without the stressful-for-them element of human emotions. Definitely not a hug. I'd like to know what Dr. Grandin thinks of the vest. By the way, she is a consultant on slaughterhouse design because she knows how to build them so that they are less stressful for the cattle than conventional ones. Think empathy, not sadism or callousness.