From "Companies Brought in Robots. Now They Need Human ‘Robot Wranglers.’ Lost and confused automatons create work for people. Bots wander off ‘like a child’ and irritate workers by following them or ‘trying to get under their desk'" (Wall Street Journal).
To what extent are people going to perceive robots as behaving the way they do because they are the equivalent of human persons? Should they be programmed to communicate as if they are humans? We're told of one "robot wrangler" who needed "to plug in the charger underneath": "As I was doing that, one of them just kind of made this crazy sounding scream. And then it said, 'Whoa, whoa, we have rights you know'... I just died laughing."
That's basically a rape joke, intruded into the workplace. Did you think it was funny the first time you heard it? The wrangler — a female, by the way — found it hilarious. But I see a sexual harassment lawsuit in the future if this approach to integrating robots into worklife continues
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We have a vacuum with a name. It screws up and needs rescuing, but it also provides its service. I think of it like a second-tier pet.
Yes, I laughed at the robot's response. My cat chuffs at visitors and follows me to the mailbox. I laugh at that, too.
"Lost and confused automatons create work for people."
From Keynesian joke to Keynesian nightmare in two decades.
Battle Bots: Robotic “Companions” Are Testing the Scope of Privacy and Sexual Freedom
Gender revolution.
A woman can lose consciousness. A robot can be turned off. A little comedy is tolerable in the age of that's sometimes funny. Hee haw.
You've all heard of planned obsolescence. But there's also an "integrated inefficiency" here. I know for a fact that they stop short of perfection for everything from software to servos. Sometimes it's cost, but many times it's not.
It's just like laser printing. The printer isn't where the money is, it's the ink.
"Companies Brought in Robots.
Now They Need Human ‘Robot Wranglers.’ Lost and confused automatons create work for people.
Remember the Stupid Olden Days? Back when "smart" people thought we'd all be unemployed 'cause of robots?
TURNS OUT; that we Will ALL be working Full Time.. Caring and Feeding the robots
and looking for them when they get lost..
and going to court when they accuse us of RAPE
“I’m sorry,Dave. I can’t do that.”
I laughed, but I didn't see it as a rape joke. Still don't. Not really.
I hear that fucking Berkeley women is like fucking robots.
Not that I have first-hand experience with those loonies...
“I’m sorry,Dave. I can’t do that.”
: )
"Everyone knows the drive number of it [46], and people are like, "Oh s -- , not again. It's him again"'.... 'I'll either get a text with a picture or I'll get a phone call and they'll say, "Hey, your President's over here on such and such line, can you come get him?"'
As one data point, my wife addresses the TV AI politely, and it never occurs to me to do so. She would say, "Alexa, please find The Bear." I would just say, "Alexa, The Bear."
Like others I didn't see it as a rape joke. But the practice of giving inanimate objects names is as old as the hills--or the first automobile. A significant number of car owners have named their cars. The name may be feminine--"Betsy" or masculine "Max" for example. HOw about "Old Paint"?
Having owned maybe 20 cars in my lifetime, I only succumbed to the naming temptation once.
I had a a Turbo Saab 900 that I named "Kemo" --as in Kemo Sabe. And yes the color of the car was silver. Heigh Ho and all that! It was a good car--and 30 years on I miss it.
So if "Blinky" has vision problems and needs to have the handler wipe its eyes--so what?
The "robot" that was "raped" was a food delivery material mover on campus at UT. It likely has a programmed humorous response for whenever it is contacted by an unauthorized human which is completely unrelated to sexual behavior.
The factory "robots" cited also appear to be simple material movers that use a form of self-driving tech to go from one place to another. We had a similar system 40 years ago but it had to follow a track in the floor.
Our system was limited by the track - but it never got lost.
At our local movie theater/brewhouse (a combination of businesses made in heaven) robots wheel food & beverge orders from the kitchen to the appropriate theater door, so the waiters can distribute them to patrons seated in the recliners with TV tables (another great theater innovation). You can always tell a newbie customer because they will see the robot coming down the hall and then be compelled to stand in front of it to see what it does (stops, makes a jog to the side, and proceeds). It has become standard for other customers to chide the person annoying the robot with catcalls such as, "Hey, leave the beer robot alone!" and "This is how Skynet starts."
“But I see a sexual harassment lawsuit in the future if this approach to integrating robots into worklife continues.”
Which sex was being harassed?
My mother-in-law is very polite to Alexa. I'm not; I'm matter-of-fact.
We have 2 Roombas, Roomby (who is male) and Roombette (female). One lives upstairs, one downstairs. Roombette gets lost a lot less frequently than Roomba, but when she does get lost, she gets REALLY lost - one time I couldn't find her all day.
Roomba gets lost or stuck about every other cycle, but he's easier to find due to the difference in his obstacles.
And I have quite long hair, so both my robots need frequent detangling.
There's a house in my neighborhood with 2 lawn mower robots, front yard/backyard - I enjoy encountering the front yard guy at work on my walks. I'll bet they get hung up under shrubs and such from time to time.
The common denominator appears to be that they take way longer to do a thing than a person concentrating on the task, but it still requires less of me to tend to my robots than to do the task myself.
Anybody else want blinky to just wander off and see where he goes?
I wonder exactly what kind of robots these are? Also, the odds are that the robot did not make a "rape joke." It's probably programmed to say that when someone is preventing it from doing something. Maybe they should change that line to , "Hey, I'm walking here!"
"Oh s -- , not again. It's him again"'.... 'I'll either get a text with a picture or I'll get a phone call and they'll say, "Hey, your robot's over here on such and such line, can you come get it?"' [said Scott Samples, the 'robot wrangler'].... When Samples gets a call about a robot wandering off, he pulls up that particular bot on his computer and looks out of the cameras and sensors attached to the device to try to figure out where the android is within the 1.4 million-square-foot facility. He then goes out, manually finds the robot and guides it back inside its boundaries...."
The man has a future as a White House staffer.
Sometimes interpretations speak more about the interpreter than the interpreted.
Sexual harassment suit! Yes yes! Filed AGAINST the woman for inappropriately touching the robot.
Joe Smith said, "I hear that fucking Berkeley women is like fucking robots."
Don't know about now, but not back in the day. Those Vietnam protests in Sproul Plaza were foreplay.
40 years ago my employer tried to implement an automated mail cart, to replace the humans doing that work. Herbie followed a magnetic track all over the building, and was supposed to stop at each office and make a ringing sound to announce there was mail.
The track was easily damaged, so Herbie was frequently seen sitting there, blocking the hallway, unable to proceed.
And when it did work correctly, it often would sit at some open doorway, waiting for someone to retrieve the mail, while everyone in that room was out on a coffee break or otherwise busy.
Didn't last a year.
#Meep2
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