As someone who works in a grocery store, most of the people I see stealing are stealing stuff like makeup or drinks and junk food, not necessities. And our regular thieves spend hundreds on cigarettes a week, while still stealing whatever they want because they know they’ll get away with it.
Yeah, the cigarettes thing is a literal drug issue. The only thing that's different between that a fentanyl is the smokes are not criminalized.
We can't expect our thieves and impoverished to be exactly rational and raid the staples, especially as we've engineered junk food to appeal to impulsivity.
As for makeup I don't have an easy explanation, though makeup is expensive and currently we do expect people to wear it rather than get accustomed to what folks look like without it. I was going to guess it's fungible, but less so than brand-name laundry detergent. Tide is currency in the underground market.
But yes, while for young people there might be a thrill in the act of stealing over buying, ultimately, when we have the capacity to fulfill our needs without careful budgeting and compromise, we're glad to do things transactionally. Professional thieves struggle to make rent.
The article mentioned tear gas canisters be equipped instead. I can't wait for a delivery robot to be near my property, someone tries to mess with it and gets gassed, then I get to enjoy tear gas as well from my front porch.
What a pathetic bunch of people trying to maintain the slave status quo in these comments. WHY are you fighting to maintain a world where people have to work low tier bull shit jobs to survive? The answer, you morons, is to let the robots be and improve society to the point technology said it would. We re the most productive we've ever been in our entire history yet work more than any other time in history. We need work reform, not a robot genocide.
In an ideal world these robots would shift to there not being a need for "unskilled labor" and we would all have more leisure time. In the late stage capitalistic hellhole we are forced to live in, huge organization replace minimum wage jobs with robots and hoard profits and push people further unto poverty, while still overworking and underpaying the few people they do still employ.
If we had a ubi, then robots and self checkouts taking minimum wage jobs wouldn't be an issue because the person who's job was taken isn't just displaced and faces homelessness or death.
So I sympathize with the people who are complaining about the robots. As much as I want a scifi future with a bunch of automation, I want exploitation of the lower class to end first.
Which is literally what my comment says, it's a work reform problem not a robot problem. This is literally exhausting your anger and energy on the wrong thing. Do you really think destroying some robots will change society?
The unemployment rates in the USA and Canada are both far below norms. These robots aren't taking anyone's irreplaceable job. Of all the things they are (ugly, intrusive, annoying), one of the things they're not doing is driving up unemployment. At worst, someone has to change jobs.
let the robots be and improve society to the point technology said it would. We re the most productive we’ve ever been in our entire history yet work more than any other time in history. We need work reform, not a robot genocide.
I am in agreement with you, but the problem is the work reform part is not forthcoming. The delivery robots didn't come with a helping of any kind of labor reform, whatsoever, and will not come with one either without some kind of violence to usher in the deal. The capitalist class would not allow it to happen any other way.
If you truly believe that it still makes 0 sense to use the violence against the robots who have 0 idea why they're being attacked and even when destroyed change nothing(because destroying these won't stop companies from making better more lethal versions).
I would disagree about your average because it's brought down by people working multiple jobs that won't generally staff them past those 30ish hours or what ever the magic number is to be just under the required time to be eligible for a benefits package. It's a widely known problem in the work force.
Low income white neighborhoods have lower crime rates than black middle/high income neighborhoods. There is no more blind person that the one who doesnt want to see.
"The robots are constantly monitored and equipped with 12 cameras and two-way audio communication systems. Any improper conduct will be detected immediately. If an incident does occur with a Starship robot, one of our robot rescuers can respond quickly," robot builder Starship Technologies says regarding robot safety, adding that acts of vandalism or theft are reported to authorities.
While that may be true in theory, instances of actual prosecution for theft from robots in cities where they operate have not been easy to discover. As with far more widespread instances of front porch package thieves or shoplifters, despite the volume of video evidence the robots can produce the police have to actually take some investigative steps to identify and locate the suspects
For me, this falls neatly into the "who fucking cares?" category. These things are deployed in very few cities overall and if the technology is ready for wide-release, you better have a more effective defense against theft than you already do if they are already being stolen from
I'm far from a Luddite and I think robots in general are cool. But I kind of don't have an issue with people fucking up autonomous roaming robots. I haven't rationalized that opinion just yet, I guess. Just feels right.
I don't think waving away being a Luddite just by saying so makes it so.
I can't think of a single angle of principled moral theory that makes this okay. Vandalizing or stealing someone else's property they paid for. Hurting both the restaurant and the customer by depriving them of their food. Holding back progress on an invention that can reduce the need for humans to engage in a type of work that is hard, dangerous at times, and low paid.
From a purely rational on paper view, it doesn't look terribly different than saying vandalizing or stealing from delivery vehicles driven by people isn't wrong. What possible justification could there be for this view besides Ludditism fuck robots?
I don’t think waving away being a Luddite just by saying so makes it so.
Guess you know me better than I know myself.
From a purely rational on paper view, it doesn’t look terribly different than saying vandalizing or stealing from delivery vehicles driven by people isn’t wrong. What possible justification could there be for this view besides Ludditism fuck robots?
Imagine thinking humans are rational beings the debate ethics every time they have a feeling. Sometimes you just gotta fuck shit up.
Do you mean the system where people would have the opportunity to cook better food for themselves instead of ordering fast food and paying exorbitant fees to have it delivered?
You're all making logical ethics arguments on a flippant emotional comment I made. You ever just have intrusive thoughts that make you just want to fuck some shit up? That's what these robots make me feel.
Using cars to deliver food pays very little, is dangerous (old guy with shotgun shoots your brains if you go to the wrong house), and is extremely bad for the environment. Current delivery workers could switch to a safer job with better pay and not damage the environment as much. Or we can implement UBI. Just a thought.
Edit: I would also like to point out a robot’s electric bill for a trip is much cheaper when compared to a gas or even an electric car. Ideally, the savings would be passed along to the customer.
Choose your spot well, preferably near an alley without any cameras directly viewing it. Wear a no -branded hoodie, sunglasses, and a mask, then obstruct its forward path, and start spray painting the cameras. Wear gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints. If all else fails, a stun gun might be very helpful in disabling stubborn electronics.
Also, purchase your outerwear and other items from different stores with cash. But not in a circle around you. And buy the bat ears in bulk so it doesn't raise suspicion.
These things have been around for a few years on the college campus in my hometown, it's not that new and they do work fairly well. Might be that it was a testing ground though
Here's an idea, don't launch these services in low trust, high crime places. In California, people can walk into a fully staffed Walgreens and commit blatant theft with no repercussions; a poor robot out in the world stands no chance.
There's a lot of parallels here. One I'm not on the side of Walgreens and I'm not on the side of the robot. If it comes down to petty crime but the only victim is an insured multi-billion dollar conglomerate I'm not going to shead a tear.
I used to work in a Vons in Santa Monica in 2016. We had thefts every day. Some even got violent. Our manager got tired of it and threatened to break someone's legs after they walked out of the store with something one morning. The theft problem in CA is real.
My brain assumed from the title that this would actually be about robot porch pirates now prowling the neighbourhood. I'm thankful we're not there... yet.
These robots are a hazard and a nuisance to the pedestrians. I won't shed a single tear for these tincans on wheels. I would not order one of these either.