Hitchhiking robot to attempt to cross most of Canada
Offline TORONTO – If there was ever a cardinal rule of the road it would be don’t pick up any hitchhikers.
But what if the hitchhiker in question was a small, smiling robot with a knack for good conversation?
A hitchhiking robot dubbed “hitchBOT” is getting ready to embark on a whirlwind adventure across Canada.
The robot, created by a McMaster University professor and a team of researchers, will rely on the kindness of strangers to get from Halifax to Victoria – it’s only other goal is to make some friends along the way.
“HitchBOT is a story-telling and story-collecting robot,” creator David Smith told Global News during an interview on The Morning Show in June. “One of the most useful ways to think about it is like MARS rover, except that its here on earth exploring the cultural life of Canada.”
http://globalnews.ca/news/1473901/hitchbot-robot-ready-to-hitchhike-across-canada/
I think this is a pretty cool idea. Hopefully it works out.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
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Man, a name like "hitchBOT" just makes me want to pick it up and tie a bottle of Johnnie Black to its arms and superglue a cig to its mouth. On a serious note, I think it is sad that not picking up hitchhikers is considered a "cardinal rule". I pick up hitchhikers all the time and the experience is almost always good and has never been dangerous. A few movies about hitchhikers and suddenly everyone thinks they are all serial killers. Kinda like Cap thinking he is an expert meteorologist after watching The Day After Tomorrow, Perfect Storm and Sharknado.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
I used to hitchhike a LOT when I lived in BC. My little town had a small grocery store, a video rental place, an ice cream shop, and 2 or 3 gas stations and that was it. In order to do anything beyond hiking in the mountains you had to go at least 13km. 25km to get to Kelowna, the biggest/closest city. Even going to school fell under the 13km travel distance. So my friends and I did tonnes of hitchhiking. Most people flew by, but I think we got picked up more than half the time. Only once did I feel uncomfortable with the people who picked us up, but even that time ended fine. I even hitchhiked in Toronto a few times when the TTC went on strike, without issue.
I can't say I've picked many up, but usually when I see a hitchhiker they're going in the wrong direction, or I'm in a rush. Provided we're travelling in the same direction and I'm not occupied I have no problem giving someone a ride. The idea that all hitchhikers are dangerous is ridiculous. Generally they are ecstatic that someone gave them a ride and saved them hours of walking in the sun or rain or snow.
I'd definitely pick up this robot if there was any chance I'd be going the same way. It'd be interesting to see what it had to say. I bet someone takes it to a bush party at least once on its journey.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
It won't make it. Some drunk is going to pick it up and then throw it off a cliff.
Hitchhiking is dangerous, that robot could have a van with no windows pull up next to it, and have a creepy looking guy say "Hey, I have some chips and expansion cards in the back you might like". Next thing you know the police find it dead in the woods.
Creepy guy, "Come here little robot, I have some programs for you".
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Personally, I bet it makes it.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Before I laugh at that bet, do you have the robot and do you plan on personally taking it across the country? Be honest.
No I don't have a car and I'm not about to spend the next year walking lol.
But I think it has a good chance. There are some who'd wayleigh it for whatever reason, but I think the average person will drive by or give it a lift.
I'd bet it's chances of pulling it off here are astronomically better than pulling it off in the US.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Yeah, in the US there are too many shitheads.
Hmmm, ...robots that are supposed to explore cultural life here on Earth. How about building a robot that stands on street corners asking for money and calling it Bum-Bot ? Or a robot that's addicted to speed and calling it Meth-Bot ? Or an atheist robot that constantly whines "religion is poison !!!!" and calling it Brian-Bot ?
*spits coffee everywhere, sends Prozac the bill*
*bill returns with bullet hole and smiley face, decides not to pursue further*
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
That's very funny. They make one moddled after you and call it "Kneejerk-Bot".
If science says that the sun is a burning ball of gas, but you still had a majority of the planet thinking it was a god, and then on top of that killing over who the chosen people that sun god loved, what would you call that, candy? Certainly no sane person today believes the sun is a god, but people do infect politics on a goble scale with it.
I love how my detrcters here in other threads RIGHTFULLY blast religion, and all types of religions, and then curl up in a ball over one word not unerstanding the context of why it is being used. Instead some here act as PC as the theists who want all of us to shut up.
If you don't want to hurt theists feelings with reality, don't be half assed about it.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
data?
NO MORON, I was not claiming people still believe the sun was a god. I was saying IF IF IF IF IF IF IF IF IF they did you would rightfully find it stupid. And most certainly if you had Sun/God believers FOR EXAMPLE making up the world's majority with different sects fighting and killing over a Sun/God, you'd also find that stupid and insane and divisive and distructive.
Do you need data to think it would be stupid for a majority of humans to believe in invisible pink unicorns vs invisbile blue unicorns infecting politics to a political level to the point of killing each over as to which unicorn exists?
Most humans have some sort of belief in a god or gods. NO SHIT, we also had humans who believed in a sun god, and a lightening god, and an ocean god, and volcano gods. Go back far enough and we had animal gods painted in caves.
You can staple your nuts to the wall too, doesn't mean it is good for you.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
It would certainly be good for everyone if YOU did it. Last thing we need is your stupidity continuing for generations.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
my bad, brian. i didn't read your post closely enough. (see how easy that is?)
btw, vastet, i think the off topic thread needs a few more additions. what do you think?
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
Problem is... is Brian ever on topic?
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Well, it would give Fonzie some competition on thread length.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/02/hitchbot-canada-adventure/?ncid=rss_truncated
So far the trip is going well.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I wish HitchBOT would come through Ohio, I'd pick him up in a heartbeat.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
Closing on its destination.
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/hitchhiking-robot-makes-it-to-b-c-crashes-couple-s-wedding-1.1955433
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Tears are collected . . . ''(Quote) .. In those days there was a Jewish custom of saving ones tears in a container called the Lacrima.''
((Source URL below)) --
Featured link http://messianicgentiles.blogspot.com/2007/04/tears-of-lacrima-luke-737-39.html
Ref. found in the Ketuvim -- NASB -- New American Standard Bible ''I have been young and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread''
0ff - site :: Family is what you make it ( and it's never really too late, until it becomes too late ) . .
OFF-SITE -- It's just the way it goes . . . (Boy, Good thing I AM so very fond of you ..babe)
p.p.s. -- All of the Smurfdom, including old seer himself :: FYI -- Words have meaning (all niceness aside) . . A moving target is much harder to hit than a stationary one, I take it . . . “The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.”
~ Søren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard
I've been too busy to look in the last few days but I saw a headline that I had to post. The robot made it safe and sound, with its last ride being in a canoe! of all things. I never considered hitchhiking on a waterfront myself. > >
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/photo-hitchbot-arrives-in-victoria-in-a-50-foot-cedar-canoe/article20112744/
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
With all this shit in this world I finally get a good chuckle from the news.
Sadly we accurately predicted it's future. Though the little robot went coast to coast in Canada, and travelled across Germany and the Netherlands, it could not make it across the US.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/08/03/usa-robot-pennsylvania-idINL1N10E1UU20150803
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Fucking worthless shreds of human debris. Too bad hitchBOT wasn't carrying.