San Francisco SPCA uses a robot to chase away homeless people, because cruelty to humans is just fine

boing
41

I was reading, and wondered to myself “why don’t the homeless people just knock the damn thing over?”

Then

Ok. +1 win homeless people. Nice touch with the BBQ sauce BTW.

5 Likes
42

Yours reminded me of this classic from The Onion:

2 Likes
43

…aka the Society for the Promotion of Cruelty to Humans (SPCH).

1 Like
44

Sooo many things wrong with that. Let’s start with it calling itself a “jpeg”.

4 Likes
45

I dunno. I think “cruelty” is kind of relative here. I mean, their usual M.O. is to catch feral animals in humane traps and spay them before releasing them. I think having a camera bot that contacts human operators when it sees people is pretty mild compared to that.

As a matter of fact, I’d be pretty nervous about bumming around the SPCA offices looking miserable and causing trouble, lest they take pity on me.

46

Just knock it over.

1 Like
47

while i find this disgusting and wrong, how is this any different to having a human security guard doing the same thing? Nobody says anything about that

1 Like
48

It appears that SF will be spending $300 million this coming year on ~7500 homeless, or about 40 grand per person.

Now the question is, how much of that is being spent directly on food and shelter, and how much is being spent on the Director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the Deputy Director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the Human Resources Coordinator for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the Purchasing Manager for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the Head of Security for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing…lather, rinse, repeat.

Institutions Will Seek To Preserve The Problem For Which They Are The Solution. -Clay Shirky.

8 Likes
49

This is the kind of pedantic corrections I can get behind.

And this.

Also, I can get with the Doctor being a women, but if they ever make a robot cat, the show will be dead to me :wink:

4 Likes
50

If they just gave them $40K directly, I don’t think they would be homeless…

But, problems like this are rarely solved just by throwing money at it.

51

Do cybermats count?

doctor-bitey

3 Likes
52

Robotic cat knocks sonic screwdriver off the table, wedging it behind a roundel where it can’t be reached.

8 Likes
53

Cybermats are kind like robot trilobites, and trilobites are cool.

Earth explodes. The Doctor’s face grows ashen with a look of horror. The Cat continues licking its paw before nudging its food bowl and starts meowing incessantly.

1 Like
54

Throwing money at bureaucracy and policing rarely solves problems.

Throwing money and resources directly at the people in need is often surprisingly effective.

9 Likes
55


“We find strong evidence linking cash transfers to increasing school attendance, health care visits, household savings, and increasing investments in productive assets.”

“There’s a common claim that cash transfers can make people lazy or make them work less, but there’s no evidence to suggest cash transfers lead to a reduction in people working.”

7 Likes
56

You’d be surprised what the data says on this.

3 Likes
57

Even libertarians are starting to come round on to the concept (particularly brotopian librotarian techbros) in the form of UBI.

1 Like
58

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Robots is considering a lawsuit.

1 Like
59

But is UBI just another subsidy for the rich?

http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2017/no-1360-december-2017/free-money-all

1 Like
60

And the Mormons in Salt Lake City:

https://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459100751/utah-reduced-chronic-homelessness-by-91-percent-heres-how

3 Likes