DragonMaster 1,166 Posted August 4, 2015 So I just heard about this a couple days ago, but some Canadian College students were doing an experiment on human kindness by releasing a small robot that had some basic conversation programming and asked people to drive it a little ways, then be dropped off so someone else could pick it up. People who found it took it to sports games, a wedding, and even had a portrait painted of it. hitchBOT traversed Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands safely. It was set to go through the US next, starting in Massachusetts and hoping to get to San Francisco... Except I just found out today that it only made it to Philadelphia, where it was vandalized and damaged beyond repair. It made a trip of about 300 miles in the US before it was "killed", while it made a trip of around 3000 miles through Canada without any major damage. *sigh* Of course the US had to be the place where some jerk would destroy a robot involved in a "human kindness" experiment. We're never going to get rid of the hateful stereotypes if we keep proving them right... But anyway, what do you all think of this? Personally, I think this was a really cute way to do an experiment, and I'm so glad that there are awesome people out there who had a ton of fun with this. Taking it to weddings and sports games? That's awesome and I wish I had been someone to find hitchBOT. Picture of hitchBOT with some good spirited people: Picture of hitchBOT after someone decides that people can't have fun: sources http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/03/hitchhiking-robots-cross-country-journey-comes-to-tragic-end-in-philadelphia/?tid=sm_fb http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hitchhiking-robot-hitchbot-meets-demise-philadelphia-after-about-2-weeks-n402606 2 The Transcendent Key and Riosephmido reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kittenz 4,281 Posted August 4, 2015 (edited) That's terrible :< What a jerk :L Edited August 4, 2015 by Yuno Gasai Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DragonMaster 1,166 Posted August 4, 2015 That's terrible :< What a jerk :L I know, makes me sad. The only reason I can see for doing this is that they're going to sell the electronics that were in the head, or they were just legitimately people who don't like others having fun. 1 Kittenz reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Klonoa the Dream Traveler 678 Posted August 4, 2015 Who did this to hitchBOT? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VisitJoan 2,713 Posted August 4, 2015 That's too bad. It's not surprising though - which is also too bad. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The Transcendent Key 12,109 Posted August 4, 2015 Wow, what an interesting experiment indeed! I'm impressed that the little guy was able to go to so many places and travel so far! If only he hadn't gotten axed, he could've made it to San Francisco! D: 2 DragonMaster and Kittenz reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Javelin434 3,164 Posted August 4, 2015 So it's basically confirmed that the U.S. Is a cesspool of hatred and bad people. I was waiting for an experiment to confirm this Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
