• ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 days ago

    This writer seems to be missing the point. The point was not what HitchBOT was. By creating HitchBOT, its makers invited the world to play pretend with them: to pretend (for entertainment purposes!) that HitchBOT was a whimsical hitchhiker in need of aid, and to collectively see how far the participants in this game could get it. Destroying HitchBOT selfishly ended the game for everyone else.

    • swlabr@awful.systems
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      4 days ago

      If Hillary were president HitchBot would still be alive

      E: followup, from wikipedia:

      Smith and Zeller recreated their invention as hitchBOT 2.0 in 2019. The robot was sent to Paris, France, where it was touring about and appearing in a play, Killing Robots, by Linda Blanchet. That tour was put on hold indefinitely due to COVID-19.

      As a metaphor for liberal fantasy and optimism, hitchbot was doomed to die, one way or another.