Robots: they’re just like us.
In Washington D.C. yesterday, a security robot took a tumble into an office fountain as it went about its security patrol. Without hesitation, Bilal Farooqui captured the incident and put it up online, where the cynical jokes began to flow like the water that drowned the security automaton.
Our D.C. office building got a security robot. It drowned itself.
We were promised flying cars, instead we got suicidal robots. pic.twitter.com/rGLTAWZMjn
— Bilal Farooqui (@bilalfarooqui) July 17, 2017
Security robot drowns itself. https://t.co/eTuG97bIrP pic.twitter.com/CnqF4SqiW2
— David Hicks (@ALL_CAPS) July 17, 2017
The robot reminded many of Marvin, the ever-suffering robot from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and so thus:
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980) – Douglas Adams pic.twitter.com/jt5VArA6ye
— Danny Page (@DannyPage) July 17, 2017
I, personally, went straight to that Rick and Morty scene with the butter-passing robot. So did this person.
“What is my purpose?” “You’re a security robot!” “Oh my god” https://t.co/H03o4Ltysk
— John Best 🌹 (@Wintermute21) July 17, 2017
And, of course, seeing as how Sunday saw the return of Game of Thrones, someone couldn’t help but pull in the timely quote.
Arya Stark: When people ask you what happened here, tell them the North remembers. Tell them winter came for your security robot. pic.twitter.com/ZEz58gT4V7
— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) July 17, 2017
This must be a pretty disappointing moment for Knightscope, the robot’s manufacturer (relatively speaking). They released a statement regarding the incident, saying that it was “an isolated incident,” and that they’re currently investigating what went wrong.
Previously, the Knightscope K5 (friendly name, huh?) caused a stir when it ran over a toddler’s foot at a Silicon Valley shopping center last year. It also made headlines when a drunken man started beating up one of the machines at the Stanford Shopping Center. He later said he was trying to “test” the robot’s capabilities. Sure, guy.
Listen: we joke a lot about the robot uprising here (and by we I mean me), but if this incident has shown me anything, it’s that robots really are just as fallible (ha ha get it) as the humans who create them. As long as we’re in full existential crisis mode, then it only makes sense that our robots would be, too.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to be sighing heavily to myself while staring out the window.
(via BBC News, image: 20th Century Fox)
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