We're Just Cavemen With iPhones
This is one part kind of adorable and about five parts we're fucking doomed.
From MIT Technology Review's Charlotte Gee -- a story about a candlelight vigil for a food delivery robot that burst into flames. (I don't think you'll be too surprised to discover the location):
A food delivery robot caught fire on the campus of UC Berkeley on Friday, prompting an outpouring of grief online and leading students to set up a candlelit memorial to the "KiwiBot."What happened? The "KiwiBot," one of over 100 robots that deliver food throughout Berkeley, suddenly burst into flames. The manufacturer blamed human error, saying someone had inserted a defective battery that had caused thermal runaway (the same issue that made Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 phones catch fire in 2016). It promised that new software will monitor the batteries inside its bots, to avoid a repeat.
The response: Students took to the "Overheard at UC Berkeley" Facebook page to pay tribute, describing the robot as a "hero" and a "legend," according to the student paper. The video of the smoldering bot had nearly 100 comments just an hour after it was uploaded. Some students called for a moment of silence, and others even went as far as to create a candlelit memorial.
Gee notes that "Some studies have found people are reluctant to 'hurt' robots and that if we see one in 'pain' it affects us in much the same way as if it were a human being."
However, children are not people:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuJT9EtdETY
The most upvoted comment nails it
Sixclaws at December 18, 2018 5:22 AM
This is really cute! Poor robot.
I miss my Roomba.
NicoleK at December 18, 2018 6:18 AM
I think the humor angle is missing here. Do you actually believe the college students were serious in their vigil?
Ben at December 18, 2018 6:45 AM
I am with Ben on this one in terms of the humor/irony angle.
This is a non-story from the perspective of predicting the future of humanity.
Artemis at December 18, 2018 9:06 AM
Yes, but did you have a funeral for it?
Conan the Grammarian at December 18, 2018 9:21 AM
The Robot Bard
Alas, poor Kiwibot! I knew him, Horatio: a robot of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at it.
Here hung those USB ports that I have used I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?
Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that.
I R A Darth Aggie at December 18, 2018 9:28 AM
Something like this one:
https://www.boredpanda.com/dead-raccoon-memorial-shrine-mourning-deadraccoonto-toronto/
Of course, with Berkelely being Berkeley, you'll never know.
Sixclaws at December 18, 2018 9:47 AM
"one of over 100 robots that deliver food throughout Berkeley,"
Ah the far left must have tried $15/hour pay, so robots deliver food.
Joe J at December 18, 2018 2:26 PM
> This is a non-story
Have you ever approved of anything?
Have you ever heard of a venture both productive and admirable?
Crid at December 18, 2018 3:51 PM
Of course, with Berkely being Berkeley, you'll never know.
Yeah, this. Don't they get their sense of humor surgically removed during freshman orientation?
Rex Little at December 18, 2018 4:23 PM
> Have you ever approved of anything?
> Have you ever heard of a venture both productive
> and admirable?
Yes - Making America Great Again!
Snoopy at December 18, 2018 4:44 PM
I'm with Ben, Artemis, and Sixclaws on this. Sounds to me like some college students needing a diversion before finals.
Heck, a friend of mine used to regularly throw (well-attended) birthday parties for his car, a 1969 AMC Rambler. The main reason he stopped wasn't lack of interest, or that we all decided it was silly or dooming Western civilization: it was just that all the suitable venues in Austin closed.
Dwight Brown at December 18, 2018 4:54 PM
Crid Says:
"Have you ever approved of anything?"
Well, if I am to be honest, I don't believe I have ever approved of something more than you approved of some guy wearing a helmet:
https://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2009/08/schumacher-gets-12000-crash-helmet/
"I’ll never forget the BBC’s “cockpit” video of Lewis’ helmet after the Q1 shunt in Monaco. There he sat, parked on the approach to perhaps the most famous corner in motor racing, with the famously soft South-of-France daylight washing over him and his suddenly-wounded chariot. And as his skull wobbled in a faceless but unmistakable pantomime of regret, the sunbeams danced across the “#1” pattern of diamonds of his helmet."
I still want to know why you are a rude pain in the ass on this blog... but when you talk on F1 blogs you are practically writing sonnets dedicated to your long lost lover.
Artemis at December 18, 2018 8:23 PM
Actually, I think Trump just Made America Doomed Again. He dropped his requirement for $5B for the wall, and is instead accepting sending nearly that much to Mexico, the country that wants to reconquer the American southwest for its own.
Crid can follow up with the "I told ya so, rube" comments.
I will probably vote Constitution in 2020.
mpetrie98 at December 18, 2018 9:12 PM
There's an interesting dynamic, though... turns out a lot of Mexican citizens aren't any happier about being invaded by "migrant" bands than we are. There's a possible diplomatic opening there.
Cousin Dave at December 19, 2018 7:10 AM
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