[ExI] news: "Australian Man Uses Robot to Commit Suicide"

John Grigg possiblepaths2050 at gmail.com
Sat Mar 22 19:18:24 UTC 2008


Australian Man Uses Robot to Commit Suicide

http://www.livescience.com/technology/080321-suicide-robot.html

An 81-year-old Australian man used a do-it-yourself robotic "suicide booth"
to kill himself yesterday.

He investigated the requirements for the device online; he was apparently
able to download the basic plans for a machine. After constructing a device
that would fire a .22 semi-automatic pistol, he positioned himself in front
of it and set it into motion. The man, whose name has not been released,
despaired upon learning that he would no longer be able to live
independently. He was found dead by neighbors.

As grisly as it may sound, the idea is already part of science fiction. Fans
may recall the Suicide Booths (see
photo<http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1526>)
from the 1990's *Futurama* series; for only 25 cents, people (or robots)
could enter the booth and be killed by robotically operated knives, saws and
other implements of destruction. General Motors aired an ad about a robot
thinking about suicide<http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=934>.


In the classic 1967 Star Trek episode *A Taste of Armageddon*, two warring
planetary societies used what amounted to a computer game to wage war on
each other without all that messy bombing and destruction of property. The
"score" was settled by the end of every day, as people lined up dutifully at
automated suicide booths.

Kurt Vonnegut used a similar idea in his very early stories like *Welcome to
the Monkey House*; the Ethical Suicide
Parlors<http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1554>were
staffed by human beings.

Perhaps the earliest reference to this idea is the government lethal
chamber<http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1553>from the
1895 story
*The Repairer of Reputations*.

As I recall, John Varley used the idea of a computer-based interactive
suicide note <http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1523> in his
award-winning 1984 story *Press Enter*.
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