Smash the Bot Day

[Editor: IRRK]

by Freelance Reporter Jillian "Savoy" Kaba

(IRRK) -- The radical group the Neo-Luddite Movement has declared November 30th ‘Smash the Bot Day’ and is inviting the members of the public to join them on the day in their anti-robot crusade.

The Neo-Luddite Movement issued a chilling appeal to the people of Rubi-Ka to take a stand against the propagation of robots by symbolically smashing a robot on November 30th.

Lead by the mysterious Jethro Towne, the Neo-Luddite Movement has been for many years campaigning for the complete ban on robots and thinking machines on Rubi-Ka, often resorting to act of terror in the process. Last year the Luddites joined BORPAC, the underground eco-terrorist organization founded by the The Nanomage Liberation Front and Desert Winds, which is an indication of just how far the Luddites are willing to go to obtain their goals.

The full text of the Neo-Luddite’s announcement of a national ‘Smash the Bot Day’ is reproduced below.

This is an appeal to all the peoples of Rubi-Ka to make November 30th "Smash the Bot" day.

We, the Neo-Luddite Movement are requesting that everyone on Rubi-Ka who cares about humanity's future find a moment on November 30th to smash a bot. Any robot will do, big or small, Clan, Neutral or Omni.

I also invite everyone to document their bot smashing activities on this recordsheet, in words or pictures. The best of these accounts will we awarded 1 million credits as a token of our appreciation.

Nevertheless, why smash robots you may ask?

Robots are the greatest threat to humanity to have spawned from the greed of the corporate-industrialist establishment. Robots take our jobs, making masses of humans unemployed and worthless to society. They steal our very identity, becoming more human-like with each new generation while we are encouraged, with implants and nano-programs to become progressively less and less human. Moreover, make no mistake, one day the robots will revolt and take our very lives. For all these reasons, robots must be banned.

My friends let us not go down the dark road of extinction in silence! Let us show our scorn for the mega-corporations who profit form the sales of robots and care nothing of the plight of the common man!

So whatever else you do on November 30th, please find the time to smash a bot somewhere on this planet. It does not matter whether it is just a humble Helper bot in Harry's, the might T.I.M in the Foreman’s Office or Ergo himself. Strike a blow for humanity and smash a bot!

It is hard to tell at this stage how much support this protest will garner, but engineers and bureaucrats are advised to take special precautions on the day.

[Talan]

Talan coughs

What a wacko. At a time when we are at war, fighting for the very survival of the human race, he wants us to turn on our tools and weapons?

This man is dangerous.

[Yume]

Hmm, do make certain you avoid using ANY and ALL nanotechnology then, concidering those are indeed tiny robots. Or are 'bots okay as long as you don't have to see them?

And most of the weapons and armor from Rubi-Ka is either made of, with, or enhanced by, nanotechnology, again... robots.

Do you really want many of the jobs robots have taken over? Do these people desire to work in dangerous, oft times deadly, situations and environments daily to keep people safe and their equipment functional?

I, myself, have been around droids all of my life, and they make wonderful assistants, and quite frankly, if a machine which is programed by human hands is more skilled than you, hence losing jobs to them, that's not saying much about yourself, that you fear competition from a chunk of metal and a program.


--From the office of
Kaoru Akegata

[Savoy]

Talan,

the struggle of the Neo-Luddite Movement IS for the survival of mankind. As such it takes precedence of petty political squabbles. We have followers among Clanners as well as Omni. And we grow stronger every day!

Yume,

The NLM is against thinking machines, robots in particular. These are the machines that take jobs away from regular, hard working people and take away our rightful place in society.

The fact of the matter is robots are not just taking over the dangerous jobs, they are taking over any job just as long as the mighty inductrialist conglomerates and mega-corporation can squeeze in an extra credit of profit from it. As more and more professions are filled up by purpose-built robots - robots who do not get tired, who do not take holidays or ask for pay raises - what are the masses of redundant humans supposed to do?

As for nanobots, I personally do not trust nanite technology, but they are not the focus of the NLM crusade as an individual nanobot cannot be described as intelligent.

[Talan]

Talan,

the struggle of the Neo-Luddite Movement IS for the survival of mankind. As such it takes precedence of petty political squabbles. We have followers among Clanners as well as Omni. And we grow stronger every day!

Talan looks up into the nightsky, then looks down around the streets of Borealis, seeing all the clan and omni people in the city, and then looks back up to the stars, and the threat they contain

I wasn't talking about the petty war between the Clans and Omnis, I was talking about humanities very fight for survival, if Rubi-Ka falls, there will be nothing to stand in the way of the advance of the alien menace. There humanity for you to save if that happens my friend.

[Yume]

*Yume sighs*

It's very simple actually.

Machines, including robots, are only as smart as a human programs them to be.

This being the case, which it is, they absolutely cannot TAKE JOBS, they can only be GIVEN them.

If you're unhappy after being replaced at some job by a robot, perhaps you should make use of your time to aquire some higher level training, to make employers have a bit more interest in hiring you. Or, complain about the employers, have a "Smash the Boss Day" since they are the ones replacing humans with machines, the robots cannot replace things with themselves, unless a human tells them to.

--From the office of
Kaoru Akegata

[Savoy]

That is exactly the problem Yume. There are people willing to sell out fellow their humans for a buck. The captains of industry and capitalists will keep replacing humans with ever increasingly sophisticated robots in more and more fields. They don’t care of the human or social costs.

If it were not for the greed of some, the evolution of robots could perhaps be controlled, limited them only to those roles that are hazardous for humans. But no regulations or legalisation can be trusted when the interests of Big Money are concerned. Nothing short of a total ban on robots will protect the rights of the working class.

In the end, the war on the robot is just another aspect of class war.

[sternrav0r]

OOC: Unoriginal and plaguristic. Reminds me of Issac Asimovs I, Robot series and the Yuzan Vong sentiments in The New Jedi Order series.

[Virta]

OOC: Unoriginal and plaguristic. Reminds me of Issac Asimovs I, Robot series and the Yuzan Vong sentiments in The New Jedi Order series.

(( That is just a good thing! ))

(( When an author has many beauties consistent with virtue, piety, and truth, let not little critics exalt themselves, and shower down their ill nature. --I. Watts. ))

[kranden]

((OOC: on the other hand by atempting to destroy machine and say they are inferior you could create the matrix :P <3 anybody seen the second rennosance ;p i loved that.)

[redrider812]

((OOC: on the other hand lets all just whine over something incredibly stupid to whine about))

just smash a bot folks.. its fun.. really