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Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

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Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#101
post #26

I understand this person is making a judgement on the state of mind of others, so it may not at all be accurate with regards to the people actually clearing the scooters, but I found this interesting nonetheless, that the author assumes this: > I just observed a couple of students clearing a path out of pity for the robots. I understand why people might feel pity for robots. People become attached to all sorts of ina…

> Robots have no feelings.

Whoa hold up. Absolutely robots have feelings. What are feelings? They're signals warranting theory of mind and empathy. Even a fence gate has feelings, when you see it trying to close but it needs a little help to sit snugly in its well.

Gandhi said "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." And in a time when animated machines roam campuses, we can look to Berkeley students for a model of moral progress.

> They deserve no pity, they're robots!. Don't donate free labor to corporations.

How do you treat service workers? Do you "shed no pity" because that waiter is employed by a corporation?

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe they pity the students who are going to get cold pizza 2 hours late?

Maybe they should pity the human delivery workers who they are helping to put out of a job?

Until we're out of this labor shortage, reducing the number of unskilled jobs society needs is a good thing.

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#103

What's the business model here? It seems like delivery bots could only work on wide walking paths on closed campuses. Or are the startups here assuming we'll build dedicated infrastructure for them? I can't imagine they would ever work in real world cities (putting rolling roadblocks on busy public sidewalks is antisocial at best, and besides they're bound to get blocked by obstructions en route that require them to…

Can't these go anywhere that a person in a wheelchair can go? And doesn't the ADA already make sure that a person in a wheelchair can go anywhere?

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#104
post #97
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I think there has been a general increase in antisociality in the last few years (especially since the pandemic, which has traumatized society) It makes sense that people who feel that they’ve been unfairly imprisoned in their homes by the rest of society would feel rather bitter about that. To restore faith societies could take steps to compensate those worst hit by pandemic measures (i.e young people), so far…

Your claim is that it is all right wing people becoming anti-social in unrelated areas?

You think only right wing people didn’t like being forcibly locked down?

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#106

Absolutely hate these scooters from an ADA prospective. My neighborhood is a mostly quiet one near the center of a large city, where there are a lot of mothers who push their kids in strollers, older folks with canes, and some people even in wheelchairs. On the weekends -- sometimes the weekdays as well depending on the time of the year -- the city gets flooded with both tourists, and suburbanites who want to go to a…

The county should act; assign parking spaces for these things, fine the companies if they find any outside of the designated spaces. The companies can sort it out with their customers. We are seeing the same thing with electric scooters and bikes (and they get torched sometimes), they get parked anywhere and the county's on board with it because it's "green". This was NOT as much of a problem with rental bikes in e.g…

This regulatory overreaction is how we got to the present environment where nobody can build anything anywhere and we have a housing crisis that is severely harming people around the world. No thanks.

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#107

Absolutely hate these scooters from an ADA prospective. My neighborhood is a mostly quiet one near the center of a large city, where there are a lot of mothers who push their kids in strollers, older folks with canes, and some people even in wheelchairs. On the weekends -- sometimes the weekdays as well depending on the time of the year -- the city gets flooded with both tourists, and suburbanites who want to go to a…

> Usually when I see this, I just knock the things over and push them out of the way. So you make the problem worse ? Why don’t you take 2 minutes and push them to the side of the sidewalk if you care so much about ADA access? You can fix the problem you are encountering, and the people you want to protect CANT. You are choosing to make the problem worse for them? Why? I live in a major downtown full of these scooter…

Moving one scooter aside doesn't fix the problem. Also they said they move them aside, the only difference between them and you is they knock the scooters over. I don't see how they're worsening the problem by moving the scooters aside.

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#108
post #101
post #26

I understand this person is making a judgement on the state of mind of others, so it may not at all be accurate with regards to the people actually clearing the scooters, but I found this interesting nonetheless, that the author assumes this: > I just observed a couple of students clearing a path out of pity for the robots. I understand why people might feel pity for robots. People become attached to all sorts of ina…

> Robots have no feelings. Whoa hold up. Absolutely robots have feelings. What are feelings? They're signals warranting theory of mind and empathy. Even a fence gate has feelings, when you see it trying to close but it needs a little help to sit snugly in its well. Gandhi said "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." And in a time when animated machines roam…

I think there is a difference between treating a robot with respect versus treating it as if it were a sentient, feeling being.

It's socially acceptable and encouraged to treat specifically arranged stones with absolute reverence (an important masonry buildings) but no one should treat it as if it was worth of pity or empathy.

A robot is animated by circuitry and code which receive input from sensors, but I personally do not believe they are "feeling" in the way animals are (humans included in "animals" here). At least not these robots. I won't speak to the future here.

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#109
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Yes, let's make innocent people crash their cars! That'll teach the people who left the scooters there a lesson!

> Yes, let's make innocent people crash their cars! That'll teach the people who left the scooters there a lesson!

The cars are insured, the insurance companies will pursue the owners of the scooters. It's the negative feedback required to compel scooter companies to operate more responsibly.

Re: Difficult situation on campus: traffic jam of food delivery robots

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe they pity the students who are going to get cold pizza 2 hours late?

Maybe they should pity the human delivery workers who they are helping to put out of a job?

Why not both?
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