This is such a shame, the fact it made it across two other countries perfectly fine definitely adds some sting to this discussion.
It's Philly. I'm honestly not sure why anyone would expect a different outcome. Drawing a conclusion about the entirety of the US is silly, though. RIP hitchBOT.
'dropped off in an alley in Philadelphia at night.'
decapitated.
"What can we learn from this?"
That I should add Philadelphia to the list of places I should avoid at night? So that means if it's dark, I should not find my ass in Gary Indiana, Saint Louis Missouri, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Detroit Michigan, Oakland California, and about half of the habitable places in the 48 States. Sooo . . . basically I should never leave home."What can we learn from this?"
The only thing I've learned is that the stigma against social scientists seems to be valid in this instance."What can we learn from this?"
If below is a real picture this just became the funniest news story of the century http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/hitchhiking-robot-lasts-just-two-weeks-in-us-because-hu-1721544551
Soon, we'll find robot hookers face-down in back alleys, ripped to bits for parts salvaging. The future looks bright!
The next time IT screws the pooch on managing my windows updates, I'm going to take my desktop into a back alley and disembowel the thing, claiming it kept pestering me about needing a ride to California. #hitchbotvirus, god, so viral RIGHT NOW. Oh, this is almost as good as the time my boss thought he might've caused the heartbleed exploit. "Well, sometimes I do open attachments before I've given the message a once-over..."
Awww. I loved that guy. Less than one month across Canada was an incredible feat. Not so sure I could even do that. When we set out to see if a robot could hitchhike across Canada, we were trying to initiate discussions about trust, notions of safety, and about our attitude towards technology. We also wanted to see, of course, whether a robot could hitchhike across the country, relying only on the goodwill and help of strangers. hitchBOT, Canada’s first hitchhiking robot, traveled unaccompanied across the continent (from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Victoria, British Columbia) in less than one month, relying solely on the help of strangers. The robot could not move by itself, so people who picked up hitchBOT had to carry it to the car, lift it inside, put the safety belt on, and plug its power cord into the cigarette lighter. The robot’s communication features were entertaining, albeit rudimentary, mimicking a fun companion for a car drive. Its character was expressed through sometimes indiscrete, funny statements, such as the question “Are you a girl?” If answered with “Yes”, it followed up with “Are you sure?” hitchBOT’s physical appearance was designed to instill trust, and to make people want to engage and connect. Most importantly, the robot was approximately the size of a 6-year old child, appealing to human behaviors associated with empathy and care. Sometimes bad things happen to good robots.
I don't think it really says anything about the US as much as it does about celebrities being able to connect with shitloads of people. If Jesse Wellens hadn't tweeted where he dropped hitchBOT off he'd probably be fine.
When I heard about this earlier today, I felt inordinate sadness and lost hope in humanity a bit. Be nice to hitchhiking robots, because you do not know the stories they can tell, you do not know the ways in which they grace this transverse world. Little robot, I'm sad to see you go, snuffed out in such an ugly way. But may there be others like you to grace this world, see the sights and travel under stars?
I'm starting to get into podcasts a lot more. Into the well-known stuff like This American Life and Radiolab but have been branching off into some of the other NPR ones and whatever you can find on Maximum Fun. Did you check out Cast Party last week?
I've tried, believe me, I know there's a lot of great content out there and I am missing out -- just I don't engage with it very well for some reason. I was slowly but surely making my way through The Satanic Verses in audiobook, made it through quite a bit, lost my place and just never tried again haha. I hear The Martian has a great audiobook, enjoyed the book so may try it out on that.