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“Knitting” Bots: Talk About Google’s Forbidden Topics without Going Broke

Stephen Green finds a way to talk about one of Google’s forbidden topics without going broke. He’s forced to refer to certain companion robots as “knitting” bots to avoid getting flagged and demonetized for appealing to prurient interests. Together with Bill Whittle and Scott Ott, Steve examines the benefits and drawbacks of these high-tech “knitting bots” while trying to avoid Google and YouTube’s secret defamation.

Stephen Green finds a way to talk about one of Google’s forbidden topics without going broke. He’s forced to refer to certain companion robots as “knitting” bots to avoid getting flagged and demonetized for appealing to prurient interests. Together with Bill Whittle and Scott Ott, Steve examines the benefits and drawbacks of these high-tech “knitting bots” while trying to avoid Google and YouTube’s secret defamation.

40 replies on ““Knitting” Bots: Talk About Google’s Forbidden Topics without Going Broke”

O.K. My comment on the link I provided was incredibly vague.
The lecture is not about knitting bots. But it is about what Cavanaugh calls “excarnation”. He talks about our computerized society. We no longer live in the body. Phones are appendages at the end of our kids’ wrists. He talks about knitting, particularly knitting-movie addiction, as a symptom of our excarnated world. With a bot or a movie, you don’t actually have to engage with a real human being. Its a fascinating lecture.
He juxtaposes this against eucharist and incarnation. Definitely for theological egg-heads, but I’m sure there are a few here.

This seems an appropriate place to leave this.
“Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; it’s more sanitary.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

Well, considering Yvonne Craig (Batgirl) played an Orion salve girl in TOS, I’d say that would be a good choice. Just get a few costume changes.

In many ways Google has become Evil Corp (thought Amazon competes for the title), but I don’t agree, this time, that it’s entirely Google not wanting certain topics to be discussed. Yes, many within Google are toxically progressive, but this isn’t about censorship, it’s about ad revenue. Advertisers are often puritanical and risk adverse, so Google sells the ad space and promises spots on “brand safe” posts. They set up the algorithm to spot anything controversial, it makes sure that the companies advertising through Google aren’t associated with anything that might align the business with a sensitive subject.
On the side topic of the knitting bots themselves, I agree with all of you that it would be a terrible thing for our society. There’s a reason that so many futuristic sci-fi books, tv shows, and movies have to do with this very idea and it’s effect on humans and robots alike. Those stories never end well for either group.

Another problem is that these algorithms work autonomously and no one is the wiser. In other words, conservatives have had our own “knitting” bots for awhile!

There were 2 topics for discussion in this video, and guess where everyone went! Me, too!
I read your article, Steve, and enjoyed your closer here…
Sometime, maybe in another video, we’ll get around to talking about the other topic, it definitely needs discussing, too!

The censorship of videos needs to just stop altogether. Even the Mr. Smithers variety. A rating system of some type is fine, but parents still need to be parents. Afraid Johnny is watching porn, put the PC in the kitchen and only let him use it there. Put some parental controls on, Don’t give your kid a smart phone at 11. Have some responsibility for the raising of your kids into adults.

I was in a band (briefly) as a teen. The drummer’s brother was watching TV all the time. His dad put the TV in a box, with the plug inside the box, and only let him watch if everything else was done, then only an hour a day.
Of course he ultimately figured out a work around (he was a smart little turd). But the parents were at least trying.
Not YT’s job to protect your kid. In fact it is not their job to protect little snowflakes, either. They should put everything out there and let the chaos fly.

Wow, I feel like my alter-ego would have approved those last paragraphs.

There was a late 80s movie called Cherry 2000 that touched on the idea of “knitting bots”. This is the start of the description in (I think) IMDB.
In the post-apocalyptic California of 2017 (close, my edit) Sam Treadwell manages a recycling plant. His companion is Cherry 2000, a lifelike robot who caters to his every need. When Cherry expires, Treadwell refuses to settle for a newer, less attractive robot. Salvaging the chip containing her personality, he hires tracker E. Johnson (Melanie Griffith) to lead him through the lawless desert zone, where a replacement Cherry can be found.

2 guesses who he ends up with. For just the reasons the Steve stated. The spontaneity of Melanie was better than the perfection of Cherry.

Life is better with people.

I think it is potentially the end of the human race. Why? If you can program a machine to be everything you want–which can be determined by psychoanalysis subroutines–and it can do it perfectly, as you like it, and there is no perceived drawback (for example, a bot programmed to “knit” for you does not resist, or argue [unless that is programmed], does not spend money, does not need financial or emotional support, and produces no children. It creates what is perceived by some as the perfect relationship or companion. It is always ready to knit, it is always in the mood, it is always happy, it always satisfies as it knows your knitting desires, it never argues and you can make it shut up and go away with the flip of a switch. Given that, why would any sane human risk their emotional well-being by having to deal with faulty biological humans in real relationships who have constant emotional twists and moods, and who do things that hurt people emotionally? Bots, if you decide to discard or trade them in for a newer model, don’t get half of your belongings and income in legal proceedings against you. You can program a bot to look, sound and act like anyone you want to knit with, so you can achieve all of your “knitting” dreams or desires, without any harm to any living being.
The down side is bots cannot produce children, so human reproduction essentially vanishes. No one will want to have painful relationships with faulty humans and all of their emotional games and manipulation. I do think at a certain age, there is a hollowness to this, but it will come to pass faster for women than for men, because one of the biological functions of a woman is to be a mother, and to be a mother they require a man, not a bot. Men, on the other hand, are biologically programmed to knit with lots of knitters in their subconscious subroutines. But men have a desire to have children too, for that is the built in function of fathers and to carry on the family genes and name. So I think things will return somewhat to normal at some point in the future where people will still have male-female relationships. But they will be relationships carefully entered into, perhaps with less of the knitting drive that makes some people insane. The social norms and attitudes toward bots and relationships will change, for the bots are here to stay and they are safer and happier options in many cases than other humans can be. But it will slow the human growth rate. There is much good that can come from these knitting bots, and there is some bad. But the baddest is the extinguishing of the emotional bonds with other humans that keep the race alive. Technology remains a two-edged sword, filled with beauty, wonder and dark horror.
But then, it always has been.

Men are as diverse a lot as any group, but we seem to all get branded by the actions of the ones that frequent strip bars and are willing to knit with anyone anytime. I am and always have been a one-woman man and strip clubs remind me of going to the zoo.

Did you see the movie a few years ago, I can’t remember if it was called ‘She’ or something like it, where a guy falls in love with his sexy voice operating system, which was learning his preferences, etc…?

I wonder how much damage to the robot industry will occur when a knitting-bot gets hacked and kills its owner. Imagine a sexually-transmitted-disease but more deadly, stealthy, and hackable.

OT: Scott, I was unable to get to the site for about 30min this morn from about 7:30 till 7:50. The site kept timing out on Safari/Mac on Mojave. Might have been you, might have been me. But I was able to get to the other deplorable sites I follow. Just FYI.

Our webhost said there was a problem with a third-party service provider they use that slowed or blocked sites on their servers. I was in the middle of trying to post new episodes in that time frame. Frustrating. Glad we’re back.

Is this another example of ‘shadow banning’, rather than some ‘technical issue’??
Just asking…

As it turns out, I read a story earlier this evening that said huge parts of the internet were down during that time. When I learned this, I told my lovely bride that I was glad to hear it, because all of that was unlikely to be my doing.

Don’t sell yourself short Scott. I am sure you could bring down Google if you really tried! 😉

Oh, the irony, Steve. The week you pick knitting as a euphemism, the big news on Insty is a popular knitting online community that’s banning Trump supporters or any positive comments re: Trump.

We are a puritan nation with double standards….You can pick up any newspaper and see juxtaposed with a story on some anti-knitting story an ad with scantily clad models selling something….the fact of the matter is, even in the Middle East, “knitting” sells….

“Knitting bot” can never respond the way that another human can…but, then again, I am sure that there are many men out there with partners who do not respond as another human and a “knitting” bot may be a step up.

I loved Steve’s closing describing why ‘knitting’ is an interpersonal interaction, rather than just a mechanical activity. The millennials are slowly but surely being weaned off of interpersonal face-to-face or body-to-body activities, and that is very worrisome to me.
As a baby boomer, I very much value the interpersonal interactions, crave them, even as they exasperate me, because it is human to human, each has their own reasons and rationales for their behavior, and men’s and women’s rationales are widely different.
I always feel it is a miracle that a man and a woman can get together and want to stay together, the only glue holding them together is ‘knitting’. Everything else drives them apart.
I don’t agree with Bill’s assessment that marriage is for the benefit of women, but at this time I don’t have a good argument against that. Maybe it is what drives men into marriage, but once married, men benefit greatly from marriage, and say so…

Marriage has always been a deal for women….That is because men always have “knitting” on their mind…and women would too if they had an anatomy like men….Women are usually most interested in “knitting” when they are fertile…they cannot deny the drive of nature…they just don’t recognize what it is. BTW, the volume on this episode is quite low…I have to stay close to the laptop to hear it…not normally that way…

The default volume setting is relatively low at the request of Members. You can adjust it with the slider on the bottom, left of the video.

I’ve noticed it and prefer it. Better than when you used to blast the theme song at the start of each video

There is a lawsuit going forward by a high schooler in CT regarding the allowing of transgenders in girls sports….a Title IX violation…

Well….It is nature’s intention that both men and women be interested in “knitting”….it is called “‘perpetuation of the species”….the human species is hardwired that way…There have been studies which show that when a woman wears less clothing than normal, that is when she is most fertile and is looking for a “knitting” mate….We are hardwired that way. Personally, I have always felt that “Knitting Houses” should be legalized for the protection of all. Re the millennials and “knitting”, that may be part of their problem….”knitting” is known to release the endorphins and makes people feel good….perhaps the leftists and millennials need to have more “knitting” in their lives….They might be a little nicer because, as much as I cringe when I see Republicans and some of the nasty comments which they make, the leftists are far far worse….There are many ways to get around the algorithm…usually, all you have to do is separate one of the letters from the word so that it is not recognized.

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