If you happen to be of the cybernetic or android persuasion, I鈥檇 definitely recommend against going to the United States on your next vacation.
That鈥檚 because the latest numbers show that 100 per cent of Canadian robot tourists who visit the U.S. end up the victims of senseless violence and vandalism.
It鈥檚 absolutely true鈥� although those stats may be a bit misleading.
You see, so far there has been only one Canadian robot tourist to visit our neighbours to the south, named HitchBot.
You may remember that HitchBot was a talkative, social media-savvy robot, about the size of a six-year-old child, who was constructed with pool noodles, an old beer cooler, rubber boots, rubber gloves, solar panels and a computer brain. In 2014, the little fella hitchhiked from Halifax, N.S. to Victoria, B.C. as part of a social experiment by some professors from Ryerson and McMaster universities.
Although it looked like something cobbled together from junk in your garage, the robot featured a聽GPS聽and聽3G聽wireless connectivity that allowed it to post frequent updates of its position on the Internet, as well as a camera, a microphone and a speaker system, allowing it to interact with people who kindly picked it up.
HitchBot travelled the entire 6,000-kilometre cross-Canada trip, tweeting and taking pictures along the way, without incident. And as HitchBot couldn鈥檛 actually move on its own, the robot relied completely on the kindness of strangers to accomplish its task. Soon after, HitchBot completed a similar hitchhiking journey in Germany, then a trip to the Netherlands in June, gaining fans and throngs of Internet followers along the way.
The idea behind the robot and its social experiment was apparently to examine how humans interact with robots.
鈥淯sually, we are concerned with whether we can trust robots. This project asks: Can robots trust human beings?鈥� said the project鈥檚 Dr. Frauke Zeller, assistant professor in the School of Professional Communication at Ryerson University.
Well, apparently not.
On July 17, HitchBot began a trip across the United States, starting in Boston with a goal of reaching San Francisco. Two weeks into its journey, HitchBot met its untimely demise in Philadelphia. Apparently while waiting for its next ride, HitchBot was vandalized and decapitated.
Reports say some of its parts were stripped out. Seriously鈥� somebody actually killed and dismembered cute little HitchBot. I wonder if it鈥檚 some sort of weird robot serial killer? Somebody should warn R2D2 and have 24-hour security around C3P0.
It is a shame, though, and 鈥� in my opinion 鈥� rather revealing.
Those researchers may have to change the focus of their social experiment to 鈥淲hich Countries Are Safest for Robot Travel?鈥�
Of course, fans around the world (and especially in the U.S.) were outraged, and some even went to the area where the robot was last seen to retrieve its remains and send them back to Ontario. Its builders, trying to soothe HitchBot鈥檚 younger fans who may have been traumatized by the robot鈥檚 鈥渄eath,鈥� reassuringly said, 鈥淲e want to let them know that a robot is not entirely like a person. Unlike people, robots can be rebuilt.鈥�
Yes, but when and if HitchBot gets put back together like a modern version of Humpty Dumpty, I鈥檓 betting it鈥檒l make alternate travel plans and avoid the U.S. for a while.
