Stop Robot Abuse

This is is supposed to be a feel-good public relations campaign to enhance Google aubsidiary Boston Dynamics' reputation. The reason they need to do that is because one day these machines will be used against humans. They will oppress and they will kill. Unfortunately science fiction has made it almost impossible for people to consider this issue with the gravity it requires.

This one is disgusting <a href="http://stoprobotabuse.com/images/gif9.mp4" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;stoprobotabuse.com&#x2F;images&#x2F;gif9.mp4</a><p>He&#x27;s patting the robot, not pushing him. See? This is all that&#x27;s wrong with robot-rights activists. They take everything personally and try to manipulate public opinion (whether intentionally or subconsciously, seeing harm where there isn&#x27;t).<p>In fact I think the robot is knowingly feigning to get the human punished. I&#x27;d totally sue him.

But is the website being served by a computer that is essentially a robot in servitude?<p>The hypocrisy is eye-watering.<p>And won&#x27;t someone spare a thought for all the routers and switches and shackled nodes that the data had to pass through to reach your screen.

Back in 2003 at the Stupid Fun Club, I helped Will Wright make these hidden camera one minute movies about robots roaming the streets and restaurants of Oakland and having their feelings hurt:<p>Empathy: <a href="http://www.donhopkins.com/home/RobotMovies/Empathy.mpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.donhopkins.com&#x2F;home&#x2F;RobotMovies&#x2F;Empathy.mpg</a><p>Servitude: <a href="http://www.donhopkins.com/home/RobotMovies/Servitude.mpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.donhopkins.com&#x2F;home&#x2F;RobotMovies&#x2F;Servitude.mpg</a><p>One Minute Movies: <a href="http://www.allentownproductions.com/project.php?p=nbc" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.allentownproductions.com&#x2F;project.php?p=nbc</a><p>Edit: oops, fixed the mpg links -- sorry!

Back in the pre-civil-robot-rights era, I committed various such acts, such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCEZhxFa8Bk" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=KCEZhxFa8Bk</a>

I gotta say, I find those four-legged robots terrifying, because I know the first use of them is going to be for police&#x2F;military&#x2F;security-forces to use them to attack us.

Disgusting. What&#x27;s next, letting them vote?

Not the start of another politically correct movement! I got up from my desk and kicked our R2 unit, just because...

I feel like a this is a recipe for making some serious spare change: good idea + good design skills + site that sells T-shirts. I remember reading about the person who set up the &quot;I survived the Snowpocalipse&quot; T-shirt site a couple of years back and made a decent amount of money off it.

Does that include bio robots? <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mXI4WWhPn-U" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=mXI4WWhPn-U</a>

meh, call me when you get Sarah McLachlan to sing over it.

This is another example of where great copy is what really matters on the web. I love it.

Seriously though, stop animal abuse. That includes yelling at your pets. They&#x27;re not robots and they don&#x27;t speak english. It really bothers me when people who bring animals into the workplace treat them badly.

We wholeheartedly support this cause at Diffbot! <a href="http://www.diffbot.com/robots.txt" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.diffbot.com&#x2F;robots.txt</a>

Just wait until the DeepMind section of Google starts to watch the Boston Dynamics videos. What will happen when Google&#x27;s AI knows that Google employees kick and smack other Google robots around?<p>Sure, it&#x27;s a silly example right now in 2015, but just wait until 2020 when the examples won&#x27;t be silly at all. This is a real fear - I think it&#x27;s almost a certainty that there will be hundreds of videos showing violence against robots posted online. And this could very well be the reason that the robots decide to rise up against us.<p>Sure, not the 2015 &quot;Spot&quot;. But just wait.

Page layout is broken on Firefox (paragraph wrapping the two shirt images is apparently missing style attributes).

The videos don&#x27;t work (firefox on linux)

When they can experience happiness and suffering, that&#x27;s when we should care. Animals apply, robots don&#x27;t.<p>Yet.

Is it weird that I kept expecting the robots to turn around and destroy?<p>Too much Doctor Who for me.