In today’s academic environment, there often seems a race to racialize common practices or terminology. Publications clamor for such articles and discovering another hidden racist element in society can bring academic accolades. However, others have already staked out many such areas such as mathematics, astrophysics, statistics, meritocracy, climate change, dieting, tipping, skiing, chess, and organized pantries. Most recently, the American Psychological Association declared that merit-based hiring may be racist. However, University of Pittsburgh sociology professor Mark Paterson has raised the alarm over robotic racism due to the fact that many robots are white.Dr. Paterson teaches in the College of General Studies (CGS), Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies (GSWS), Urban Studies, and Center for Bioethics and Health Law.In The Conversation, Paterson noted the rise in “socially assistive robotics” and the dominance of robots with white “skin” made of “shiny white plastic.” As a result, he frets that black children (particularly those requiring assistance) “could end up interacting with white robots.”It is all part of the “poverty of the engineered imaginary”:
The cultural imaginary that enshrines robots as white, and in fact usually female, stretches back to European antiquity, along with an explosion of novels and films at the height of industrial modernity. From the first mention of the word “android” in Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s 1886 novel “The Future Eve,” the introduction of the word “robot” in Karel Čapek’s 1920 play “Rossum’s Universal Robots,” and the sexualized robot Maria in the 1925 novel “Metropolis” by Thea von Harbou – the basis of her husband Fritz Lang’s famous 1927 film of the same name – fictional robots were quick to be feminized and made servile.
Kathleen Richardson, a robot ethicist at the De Montfort University, wrote that “the development of sex robots will further reinforce relations of power that do not recognize both parties as human subjects.” A supporter of the Campaign Against Sex Robots, Richardson warned “technology is not neutral. It’s informed by class, race and gender. Political power informs the development of technology.”
In Paris, feminists opposed sex-doll brothels on the basis that the dolls cannot consent and allow for violent fantasies. Lorraine Questiaux of the feminist group Mouvement du Nid (Nest Movement) called the brothel a “place that makes money from simulating the rape of a woman.” In Sweden, feminist organizations moved to ban sex bots as advancing the “objectifying, sexualised and degrading attitude to women found in today’s mainstream pornography.” They object to the right of men to create artificial women who “obey their smallest command” and “cannot say no to something that the man wants.”
Notably, Elon Musk could prove the great emancipator from racist robots. While Paterson was raising the alarm, Musk unveiled his robot:
Whining about racism is all these black ‘intellectuals’ have. Without racism, they don’t have a job, and as evidence of racism declines in our country, they desperately look for ways to revive it, so they can whine about it. So this guy is sitting around one night trying to think of new things to claim are ‘racist’ and decides ‘aha!! all these robots are white!! It’s a republican conspiracy to suppress black people!! Call a press conference!!’ It would be funny, were not it true.
Snow must be racist as well as bunnies, dogs, The White House, clouds, and white picket fencing. IT’S JUST A COLOR EVERYONE. Stop being stupid about it. The only thing that matters is what lives in your mind and heart as eventually it comes out your mouth and through your hands.
Intimate interactions with machines have been happening for awhile.
Here is an entertaining old British Medical Journal article on penile injuries from vacuum cleaners.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1713722
As someone pointed out [no link] the motive could be erotic or it could be just a desire to keep one’s parts clean and dust free.
𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 | 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐬 𝐎𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐞
By: Foodverge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQkmFZQ-2SA
𝐁𝐌𝐖’𝐬 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬
Robotics startup Figure has signed a “commercial agreement” with BMW to introduce its “general purpose” humanoid robots to BMW’s manufacturing facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina, as it tries to identify use cases in automotive production. The robots are intended to automate “difficult, unsafe, or tedious” manufacturing tasks, and if they’re found to be viable, they’ll then be deployed in the BMW facility in stages.
By: Jess Weatherbed ~ Jan 18, 2024
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/18/24043065/bmw-figure-robotics-humanoid-robot-workers-deployment
Will BMW and startup Figure poll negotiate with a union, if any, or poll employees before selecting the “color” of the robots? Just asking!
The Man who came and died a criminal’s death
I smiled and quickly turned away
Oh, my good gosh, Robby the Robot is a racist. Sorry, “That does not compute.”
This is a joke, right? I mean, I know it’s not April Fools’ Day yet, but still, it’s just a joke, right? Right?…
I can only think about Austin Powers and the scenes with the Fembots when you write about this topic. I hope the new robots do not have machine guns installed in the female robot’s breasts.
https://youtu.be/LOGTvy4Odmk?si=qJRA47J5FoB-QaiP
If they are designed by feminist engineers they will have little, toothy bear traps in their privates. Still, some men will undoubtedly use them–once.
Jonathan: Forget about DJT’s continuing losses when he is being sued. They are legend. When he is the plaintiff he also loses. DJT is now taking his string of losses internationally. Back last year DJT filed a lawsuit against Christopher Steele and an org. in Britain over allegations DJT took part in “perverted acts” and bribed Russian officials to cover it up. DJT claimed the information in the Steele dossier harmed his ‘reputation”, not much to base a claim of reputational harm these days for the Trumpster.
Remember that the Steele dossier came out in 2017. An English high court justice, Mrs. Justice Steyn, just agreed with Steele this week that DJT’s case should not to go trial. Why? Because DJT’s claim was stale–he made the claim outside the 6 year statute of limitations. Yes, British law has its own statute of limitations. Justice Steyn ruled that that DJT “has no reasonable grounds for bringing the claim for compensation or damages…”.
So to no one’s surprise DJT has once again lost–this time in the UK. A place you have often criticized for its judicial system and alleged assaults on “free speech”. What do you think about DJT’s latest loss?
Not only is he losing cases, but he’s bilking his supporters, using over $50M in campaign funds to pay his legal bills.
Anonymous: I know. The Q is what is the FEC going to do about it?
That statement assumes that his supporters do not consent to the use of those funds to support his fight against out-of-control government prosecutors.
They haven’t been asked, so he hasn’t gotten their consent.
And the government prosecutors aren’t out of control; rather, his criminal acts have come home to roost.
“Because DJT’s claim was stale–he made the claim outside the 6 year statute of limitations.”
Holy cow!
*Now* the Left embraces a statute of limitations?! Where was that statute for E. Jean Carroll’s case, and for the Me-Too mob in NY that wiped it out?
Yet again, for the Left: Use the “law” to protect friends, and to punish enemies.
Sam, Dennis McIntyre = Hypocrite. He is also a liar and a few other things, none good.
Yet one more person with TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) babbling on about President Trump, rather than responding to the post.
I vote for polka dot skins with every color in the visible spectrum, all of equal size.
So DEI is nothing new, look at local government agencies. Who do you suppose these world renowned Doctors of philosophy and liberal studies are that conduct and write these studies? Just look at Harvards prior President, the inmates are running the asylum.
Question, asking for a friend: the black robot/white robot issue is stupid. But as to the sex-bots, how does one objectify and subjugate that which cannot be defined?
“THE LUNATICS HAVE TAKEN OVER THE ASYLUM”
One foreign immigrant may constitute legitimate “asylum.”
10 million foreign immigrants constitute illegal alien invasion by an adversarial martial force.
Actual Americans want “asylum” from criminal invading illegal alien Mexicans, Haitians, Chinese, and various and sundry human flotsam.
How do actual Americans get “asylum?”
By the way, the coast is clear, your country is proven safe and habitable by the U.N. and by U.N. standards – YOU CAN ALL GO HOME NOW (after you pay your “clean-up” exit tax).
Forget Iran, it’s long past time to retaliate against Mexico and its despotic narcocracy.
Robotic diversity (i.e. color judgment, class bigotry) is digital hate. Wicked. #HateLovesAbortion
This article would be hilarious if it were a parody. Unfortunately, it is a sign of our times.
On a personal note, I graduated from a small college in the Pittsburgh area. Our favorite names for Pitt’s “Tower of Learning” (a very tall building on Pitt’s campus) were the obvious “Tower of Ignorance” and the “Inverted Mineshaft”. The former seems to have been quite prescient.
Computers used to be white or beige. Then the black is beautiful lib loon psyop years hit, and everyone had to have a black computer. At one point it was a crisis as China had run out of black dye. They found some substitute, but to this very day every kid and nerd is trained to scream I love my black computer.
The big problem with black as the basis for every computer tower, part , and most laptops, is that you can’t see what you’re working on. Yeah, it’s just like the white shiny toothed smile at night.
Westworld is the bomb, kids!
D.E.I., Robot
𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬?
Discussions have arisen about whether AI-powered robots can compete with or someday outperform human athletes.
GlobalData Thematic Intelligence ~ September 19, 2023
https://www.verdict.co.uk/robot-athletes-versus-humans-sports/
My auto is an it; my pen is an it; a robot is an it. I can (for now) purchase any color of car and select any color of ink or plastic in a pen. If the color of plastic or other material used to construct a robot must take into consideration the “color” of those who may sometime see it, live or in photos or videos, what is next? Will I be required to have a white vehicle (and be prohibited from having a “colored” one) due to my northern European heritage? and to not drive it where a person “of color” might be offended not see it? Will sales of brown and black vehicles be restricted to persons who identify as people of those “colors”?