Robot Security Dogs

if you haven’t seen the videos of the walking/climbing robots being developed by the military you should search on youtube for “boston labs robot”.

every time i watch one my brain has to decide between 2 mutually exclusive observations:

1. this thing is a robot
2. this thing is alive

but this post isn’t about the inevitable time when our control of matter itself blurs the distinction between man and machine. instead, this post is about robot security dogs.

assumptions:
i’m making some general assumptions to allow for this possibility, mostly:
– the power supply will become smaller and less noisy
– they can stick video cameras in its eyes and microphones in its ears
– the cost to produce the smaller, quieter version will decrease, eventually leading to consumer models
– GPS satellites, the internet and smartphones will continue to be things
– parents will be afraid for the safety of their children and do whatever they can to protect them no matter how creepy

assuming all that, i can picture someone buying their child a robot security dog, with built in GPS, that follows the kid around and always knows where the kid is (assuming the kid has a phone). for those 4 year-old’s whose cruel parents wont allow them to have a phone, they could use some kind of GPS-trackable wristband.
or tooth implant.

its normal for parents to stop using a baby monitor once the kid is a certain age, but if the baby monitor is a robot dog that continues to follow the kid around when it is old enough to walk then parents could potentially continue the real-time remote surveillance indefinitely. they’d just have to access the dog’s audio/video feed. using an app the parents, grandparents and other trusted members of the family could see the video of what the dog is seeing, hear the audio of what the dog is hearing, and even see on a map the location of the dog and the child.

at what age would kids have a right to know they are basically jim carey in the truman show?
would the child eventually get control over the dog and the stream of data it collects?
would that be some sort of cultural ritual new to humankind – recognizing the assignment of agency to the individual?
who decides when that happens?

i dont know if this is all a good idea, but the military seems well on its way towards completing their part of the equation, and many wealthy parents will have no problem justifying the purchase.

perhaps by the time the next generation of royal family has a baby it will get a robot security dog and the whole world will get to subscribe to have select access to its feed. for a fee, which goes towards a charity to provide robot dogs to under-privileged children.

orig. posted on December 10, 2015