4 ms·

After raucous meeting, San Francisco approves plan for lethal police robots

16 points by chillbill 4y ago

SwSwinger 4y ago
- jerkstate 4y ago
  yeah but hypothetically, wouldn't you and your friends feel a lot safer if there were autonomous robots with explosives patrolling the street though?
- mvkel 4y ago
  Shot? Really? Shootings are relatively rare in sf.
- fooblaster 4y ago
  I have walked in San Francisco for about 8 years now and haven't ever seen anyone get robbed or shot. Police, on the other hand, I see all the time.
_8j50 4y ago
Strangely, I prefer to be shot by a robot than a human cop. Either I had it coming or it was purely an accident. Either way, robots don't get qualified immunity and for some reason it feels less personal, perhaps because robots can't have malicious intent (yet!).
- chillbill 4y ago
  Yep, that’s strange. The robot could also get hacked by a rouge (or not so rouge) agent attempting to kill you or someone else? At this point, and if these flying bombing robots actually start going around, I’m absolutely certain it will happen.
  - _8j50 4y ago
    It could and would get hacked but would it be as often as cops injure and kill people today?
    - chillbill 4y ago
      Compared to how many people exists in the world and how many cops there is, there’s really not that much of that happening. Media reporting is widely skewing people’s views.
- kupopuffs 4y ago
  Humans are messy and hard to change Robots can be continuously iterated on. Which can be kind of scary
  - _8j50 4y ago
    I use to think so but noe I think unpredictable and cruel humans are scarier. You can debug/troubleshoot a machine but people's free will and complexity makes them dangerous. If a robot sues me, I can sue its operator. If a person shoots me, they can claim an accident, self-defence,qualified immunity,etc... so robot operators have a good incentive to be right when they fire. The scary part isn't the bots but who controls them.
- bearmode 4y ago
  These aren't autonomous - they require a human controller
coorski 4y ago
can robots be dosed with illegal / legal substances? whammy ?!?
nunez 4y ago
Did they really not watch RoboCop?!
yucky 4y ago
The argument for this is that it removes the argument of "cops life in danger" which they think will reduce or eliminate shootings of unarmed suspects. There are several arguments against this, but the one that concerns me most is that this turns police encounters into a video game which will dehumanize the people on the other end.

16 points by chillbill 4y ago

jerkstate 4y ago
yeah but hypothetically, wouldn't you and your friends feel a lot safer if there were autonomous robots with explosives patrolling the street though?
mvkel 4y ago
Shot? Really? Shootings are relatively rare in sf.
fooblaster 4y ago
I have walked in San Francisco for about 8 years now and haven't ever seen anyone get robbed or shot. Police, on the other hand, I see all the time.

Strangely, I prefer to be shot by a robot than a human cop. Either I had it coming or it was purely an accident. Either way, robots don't get qualified immunity and for some reason it feels less personal, perhaps because robots can't have malicious intent (yet!).

chillbill 4y ago
Yep, that’s strange. The robot could also get hacked by a rouge (or not so rouge) agent attempting to kill you or someone else? At this point, and if these flying bombing robots actually start going around, I’m absolutely certain it will happen.
- _8j50 4y ago
  It could and would get hacked but would it be as often as cops injure and kill people today?
  - chillbill 4y ago
    Compared to how many people exists in the world and how many cops there is, there’s really not that much of that happening. Media reporting is widely skewing people’s views.
kupopuffs 4y ago
Humans are messy and hard to change Robots can be continuously iterated on. Which can be kind of scary
- _8j50 4y ago
  I use to think so but noe I think unpredictable and cruel humans are scarier. You can debug/troubleshoot a machine but people's free will and complexity makes them dangerous. If a robot sues me, I can sue its operator. If a person shoots me, they can claim an accident, self-defence,qualified immunity,etc... so robot operators have a good incentive to be right when they fire. The scary part isn't the bots but who controls them.
bearmode 4y ago
These aren't autonomous - they require a human controller

coorski 4y ago

can robots be dosed with illegal / legal substances? whammy ?!?

nunez 4y ago

Did they really not watch RoboCop?!

yucky 4y ago

The argument for this is that it removes the argument of "cops life in danger" which they think will reduce or eliminate shootings of unarmed suspects. There are several arguments against this, but the one that concerns me most is that this turns police encounters into a video game which will dehumanize the people on the other end.