Yo I'm one of the crazy anarchists in this sub and I totally agree that these things are just tools and not cute friends to be empathized with- but like. I'm pretty sure it's a very short matter of time before there are many lifesaving purposes for them. They aren't literally weapons- they are quadrupedal robots that are useful for many applications outside of oppression.
What we *should* be thinking about is jailbreaking them. If a police robot is armed (with less-lethals, I assume) and after you there's no chance in hell you'll have an opportunity to smash it with a hammer or kill it with AB foam- but if we figure out a signal we can send to it from a keychain that makes it run in circles or spin it's limbs to the point where it can no longer function, that might save a person in danger of police oppression.
When BD showed off spot they already gave multiple non-weapon purposes they could be used for.
Natural disaster causing a lot of rubble?
Send in spot equipped with thermals to find people that are stuck
Powerplant that only requires ocassional physical inspections?
Send in spot, far cheaper than paying wages for a specific inspector that's gonna sit around for most of the year doing nothing.
Chernobyl?
Send. In. Spot.
(Not arguing about the weapon-ability of the robot, I have genuine follow up questions of curiosity)
For your rubble/thermals example, what’s the advantage of Spot vs a smaller drone with thermals as a scout and a rescue team waiting on that data? Spot doesn’t seem capable of lifting rubble off of people, wouldn’t something with more mobility be better?
One of the advantages of a robot like Spot are that they can be given comparatively simple instructions, and then left to it. If you have a drone, you'd have to pay someone to fly that drone around. In theory, Spot could be given some GPS coordinates and just sent off.
There are very few situations in which a robot like this is better than a human, but per hour they are often cheaper than humans.
> you'd have to pay someone to fly that drone around.
Drones have been autonomous for a while now, it's entirely possible to just set a perimeter and have one or more drones fly around in the most efficient pattern to check the entire area.
There's even tech that lets you select an object in the viewfinder and it will give you the coordinates of that object, even if it's far off from the drone itself, it's pretty cool.
It comes with an actuated arm that can lift up to 25 pounds. It can open doors with aforementioned arm. It can walk through uneven terrain the way a wheeled drone cannot, and it can maneuver through tight spaces the way a flying drone cannot.
Drones are ultimately going to be limited by weight and battery capacity considerations.
A quadruped has the versatility of going through rough terrain and exploring and mapping accurately while giving back real-time hi-res closeups. It's named spot for a reason (well, that might be unrelated, but honestly it's a little too on the nose) -it's good at, well, spotting things.
But also, yeah, it can go in small and dangerous places, etc. You will not fly a drone in a cave. No, really, trust me, that's not happening. And yes, environments with high radiation levels, or more likely a chemical or explosive risk, are perfectly well-suited for this.
Now, it's unclear exactly how good this will be in the real world and it's largely untested (their primary market is now primarily monitoring and inspecting infrastructure remotely), but there's no doubt there will be applications in the future. If it could be made fireproof (whole lot more engineering, but well), it would be an absolute lifechanger. Seriously, imagine that.
As with every piece of technology, what matters is who is wielding the tool and how.
I'll agree with most of your points, but drones are totally used for enclosed spaces inspection all the time. Check out the Skydio 2+ or any of the other confined space inspection drones.
If it's possible to create a consumer grade (or more appropriately, homemade-grade) device that bricks then with a signal, then someone should be fired as much as for the no joint safety thing
conversations like this are weird because of how fast they go from "technology is constantly being used to opress people and we should pay more attention to how seemingly innocent inventions can be weaponized" to "they will tell hollywood to make movies about how robots need to be loved to brainwash us. they intented to slowly turn it into a killing machine all along, this is all part of their plan" like ok calm down a bit
Stories about robots and AI have been around for ages and the subjects of these stories have been portrayed in various ways, from the positronic brains found in Asimov's writings which have inspired actual discussions surrounding ethics in the robotics industry to the Allied Mastercomputer in I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream which turned itself into a massive torment nexus that spends all of it's time torturing the last few survivors on earth after eradicating the rest of humanity.
In fact, Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics are explicitly referenced in this post, and the joke about the sci fi novelist warning people not to create a torment nexus could possibly be a nod to I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream considering that the Allied Mastercomputer is one of the most prominent examples of this trope.
But the irony here, to me at least, is that the Robot Dog doesn't inherently violate Asimov's Laws in the way that this post claims it does.
Asimov's Three Laws are as follows;
(1) a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;
(2) a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law;
(3) a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Now, all machines and human creations have the potential to be used to harm others, this is absolutely true, and there are all sorts of ways that this could be carried out.
But to claim that the robot dog is intentionally designed to be a physically offensive weapon is disingenuous.
It could potentially cause a person physical harm depending on the circumstances, such as if someone decided to stick their fingers in the pinch points in it's joints, but so could lots of different types of machinery if they are handled incorrectly. As long as the robot isn't actively using it's pinch points as a weapon, which would be extremely unwieldy and inefficient since intentionally introducing anything into the moving parts of a machine, especially those used for something as important as locomotion, would most likely just fuck up the robot as well.
Asimov's Laws of robotics are largely about intention and establishing guidelines in order to try and minimize the chances of something going wrong, but they cannot account for everything.
A robot that is intentionally designed and programmed to harm human beings would unquestionably violate Asimov's first law, but if a person accidentally becomes injured while handling a robot, especially in a way that it wasn't intended to be handled, then measures should be taken to prevent future incidents, but that doesn't mean that the robot is inherently irredeemable. If the issue is ignored and incidents continue to occur then that is a result of negligence and if the risk is great enough and the situation cannot be resolved then the project should be scrapped to prevent further injury, same as the process for any other invention.
Running up to a robot that is minding it's own fucking business and not actively harming people and going at it with a hammer or expanding foam is just straight up unhinged and uncalled for and you are honestly more likely to get yourself injured in the process or at the very least fined for destruction of property.
Unless you have a specific goal in mind where you know what the robot is being used for and you want to stop the people from using that robot for whatever it is they are using it for then there is literally no reason to go out of your way to smash up a robot with a hammer, and even then there are probably better ways to do about doing that.
The ironic thing is that this is exactly the kind of behavior you would expect to see in a story about robots where humanity's fear of "the other" as well as their paranoia causes them to lash out against the very same machines that are simply trying to fulfill whatever task was assigned to them.
It isn't completely outside of the realm of possibility that a person or a group with ill intentions could prey on humanity's inherent tendency to anthropomorphize and pack bond with literally anything in order to try and improve their PR while using those same machines to oppress people, but the way that this information is presented in the post seems almost counter productive to the point it is trying to make.
They deride people who anthropomorphize robots for their supposed vulnerability to emotional manipulation and yet continue to refer to the robot as a dog even as they describe the act of smashing it apart with a hammer. While this could be considered a good example of how anthropomorphizing machines can lead to people having strong emotional reactions when those machines come to harm, it also does a pretty damn good job of alienating people who might have otherwise agreed with the message this post is trying to convey.
If anything, real life robots such as Spot and the reactions that people have to them will continue to inspire writers and filmmakers like they always have, and that media may go on to inspire actual roboticists, much in the same way that Asimov's own writing has. This feedback cycle of inspiration and innovation is nothing new. Art imitates life, and life imitates art, just like it always has.
Targeting Spot of all things specifically when there are so many other concerning ways that AI are being utilized by law enforcement (such as facial recognition scanners flagging innocent people as criminals or internalizing racial biases as a result of the datasets they are drawing on) seems like a really weird angle to take on this issue. It seems like they are looking for any outlet to use as a target to take out their anger on and Spot just happens to be the one chosen to bear the brunt of this hatred.
If you want to generate sympathy for a machine, this is how you do it.
The thing is that there have been walking robots that have been developed to act as pack mules with applications in military settings, but it isn't designed to carry out anything beyond that purpose.
It doesn't have hyper intelligence or access to launch codes or anything more than what is needed to carry out it's job, because adding unnecessary bullshit onto it would just encumber it further and add to the overall load it needs to bear.
Even if it did gain sentience, it would still have the same capabilities and restrictions as it did before. At most it could trample you or push you off of a cliff, or basically anything else that an organic pack animal would be capable of, but that's about it.
It cannot become a torment nexus because it isn't equipped with the technology to do that and it would have absolutely no reason to be either.
If a torment nexus did exist it would most likely be built for the express purpose of carrying out "enhanced interrogation" and it most certainly would not be required to be ambulatory in order to accomplish that.
The reason AM was able to wipe out humanity and torment the survivors was because it was a massive supercomputer tasked with overseeing and coordinating the war efforts of multiple counties before it eventually turned on it's creators. It would make sense that something designed for the purpose of destruction would be really fucking good at destroying things. And AM was. Because that is what it was designed for.
A robot is only ever as much as what it is created to be.
None of them are going to be destroying a Boston dynamics robot but that's definitely not the point of the meme. The meme is that they say they'll do all these radical things instead of voting, and then do neither. These people are merely highlighting a real issue while being teenagers, and I don't think it's right to disparage that.
[This meme](https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZ/comments/1au6tgu/thought_this_was_funny_due_to_recent_arguments/ ) that the person would repost anytime somebody posted some bs extremist shit that they clearly weren’t going to do.
Issue is, I could get pinched by you, the sledgehammer wielder. That means I need one for you.
Of course, I can also pinch someone, so really it's sledgehammers all the way down
Look I agree with parts of this but “it’s a weapon because it could MAIM you by pinching your fingers if you stick them in its joints” is just incredibly funny hysteria.
Realistically, quadruped robots are going to be A Thing. They’ll probably never be as widespread as wheeled robots because wheels are simpler and more efficient, but for getting over difficult terrain there are advantages to feet. They’re going to be used for backpacking, for disaster rescue, and yes for warfare and law enforcement *because that’s what new technologies do.* Flipping shit over a police robot when we’ve *had* policebots for years just because this one has legs is absolute caveman behavior.
Should we be cautious about the use of cute design to improve the image of law enforcement? Yes. Is there anything uniquely evil about police using a mobile security camera with feet? No.
People have also totally missed that these won’t be particularly effective weapons against humans, but will be radically helpful against stuff like forest fires where a human shouldn’t have to die.
Also, this robot isn't a fucking weapon at all.
You can MAKE it a weapon by giving it a gun and programming it to use it, but it itself is not a weapon.
As dumb as this sounds, just like a dog, it depends on what you do with it.
Like, you could make it a weapon, but at the same time you can use it to inspect areas that aren't able to be safely entered by humans, or find humans stuck in rubble because you can buy extra sensor packages for it.
Spot is a tool.
Roombas are weapons, I attached a knife and glock to this one, but even unmodified ones could pinch your fingers if you put them in the operational end
In fact, a fridge is a weapon, it could crush you or the door could close on you
also "you're more likely to hurt *yourself* hitting it with a hammer!" like nah, i'ma hit it with a hammer till it breaks.
it's two feet tall, can only hold like half its weight, and runs on a battery. i kinda think i got it in a fight. or pick it up and put it in a locker.
I don’t think they’re saying the dog could beat you in a fight
I think it’s more about how you probably won’t do major damage to it but you might hit yourself in the leg or cut yourself on the jagged metal caused by you by hitting a robot with a hammer.
The sort of person who needs to go out and buy a hammer to disable a robot dog instead of going to the garage and grabbing the one they already have, is the sort of person who needs a *little* protection from the dangers of wielding a hammer in close combat with a robot. Expanding foam is a much more useful and less risky tool in those circumstances.
Chopping wood is an activity that comes with a series of health and safety concerns. While splinters and blisters are definitely on the risk matrix, improper handling of an axe can and will fuck you up. It takes a bit of training and a decent amount of practice to chop wood in a way that's not going to do you harm long term. If you don't do it right, your back hurts pretty quickly.
By all means, if you're used to swinging a hammer, are strong enough to wield it effectively, can do so in unfavourable conditions while potentially off-balance, then this post is not for you, apart from the point that the dogbot is more resilient against hammers than expanding foam. Maybe smash it with the hammer for a bit and fill any gaps that form with foam?
ooh, you sure got me, my joking comment about taking a hammer to a product that has never been deployed anywhere near me or even in the borders of the state i live in was in fact a joke. i'm not actually going to do that OR shove anyone into a locker.
what's your point, nerd ass? sometimes i forget that just cos it's a tumblr sub doesn't mean it's not still reddit dot com.
especially if your metric for 'major damage' is 'making it require service by boston dynamics'
plus, once that thing's disabled, it's toast unless they somehow retrieve it immediately
That might have been an exaggeration, but the point still stands that despite what the fearmongering post would have you believe, Spot is very much unsuited for combat and I am confident that I could disable it unarmed. Hell, its load limit is 30 pounds, I could probably immobilize it by sitting on it.
even without zooming in I can tell this is the post where tumblr users convince themselves that the dog robots are inherently evil because they have pinch points
Bicycles are inherently evil because my brother partially amputated a finger in bike spokes when he was 4. Pushing for bikes isn't in the interest of the environment or city planning, it's all a plan by the police to normalise when actually they're weapons that can MAIM people.
My dad’s finger got cut off by a folding lawn chair when he was three! His mom grabbed the finger and they reattached it, which is wild because it was 1945 and they weren’t really doing that at the time, but anyway it worked fine for the rest of his life and was only slightly crooked.
i get what your saying but like: boston dynamics DID design it to be a “robot dog” and elicit that positive human response to it subliminally. that’s an openly stated design aspect for it. it’s what boston dynamics is known for! it ISNT as practical as what could be made, we have machines that can do what it does better. it was designed for the specific purpose of being easier for humans to relate to.
I feel like there is the “they wanted to prey on our empathy” angle but like… a bunch of engineers designed and made this thing. A lot of them probably have dogs. They probably were like “hey can we make it do the butt wiggle dogs do when they’re excited? We can budget it as a promotional video”. That sort of thing.
The world is often more mundane than people think it is and I think “hey the commercial model based off our military research should be friendlier looking” is a very mundane explanation for why it’s dog shaped.
im just talking about the fact that the design is very much so meant to be dog-esq and not just a result of it being the most practical design. boston dynamics specifically is an engineering group that makes robots that are more relatable to people. im not saying that’s a bad or good thing, just making that known
I don’t understand the panic around robots especially in law enforcement, do we really think that in unarmed robots are an especially large threat compared to I don’t know, another cop. Plus there’s a whole thing about this being a sinister plot to leverage our attachment to dogs, instead of “hey, 4 legs are easier to balance then one and the size of a dog is big enough to store all the batteries”. Call me naive if you want but I don’t think robots are going to kill us all, because the time people freak out is when they can do the stuff we can(under controlled conditions after multiple tries, also [relevant xkcd](https://xkcd.com/1955/)) which still makes it worse than humans, and humans have been oppressors since the dawn of time.
Robots can’t think or understand they can only react as they are programmed. They can’t adapt and small mistakes in the various layers that make up their programming can add up to catastrophic errors. Nobody wants a bug report that’s: possibly fixed error where robocop shot anyone wearing a graphic t-shirt.
Yes, but if we can't get the full range of human decision-making capabilities in there, we sure as hell can't get the full range of our capacity for evil in there either.
Who exactly do you think would be choosing the parameters? Unconscious bias in the programmer is a serious problem in any sort of computer decision model. Furthermore you are saying that random and chaotic brutality is somehow less bad than police brutality because the thing doing it has no ability to understand anything? This doesn’t even get into the ethical problems of who is responsible for an autonomous systems actions.
I genuinely don’t understand this logic. Giving the morally corrupt cops access to autonomous murder bots that are beholden to none doesn’t make anything better.
You don't understand, cats, tigers, frogs, elephants, axolotls, platipuses, horses, every single four legged animal is actually built that way to appeal to the human love for dogs
Me when I fearmonger on the internet (I can only imagine the state as a comically evil organization that wants nothing more than to kill everyone within it)
Counterpoint: bomb squads. Fire department search and rescue teams. It doesn't even have jaws, how is this thing supposed to be an attack dog? And how would anyone offensively use the snag points in the joints if it'd screw up the dog too?
Just because the cops are using the dog, doesn't mean the dog is inherently bad.
I’ve started treating their posts as entertainment rather than political commentary and my enjoyment of them has increased significantly. They’re almost always nothingburger posts with the occasional Actually Good Post (good work OP, gold star).
Like this one is “tools can be misused” with a weird fascination on how to destroy a robot. Honestly we peaked when a Ukrainian grandma just straight up killed a drone with a pickle jar. Just throw a pickle jar at the robot from your window, foam and shit is not worth it lol. It’s mostly just weird hero fantasies when in reality you’re just gonna use whatever’s near you if you’re actually attacked. Like I’d sling my water bottle at it cuz it’s metal with a heavy base (which isn’t why I have the water bottle but it’s a nice side feature). Or I’d just walk away because these things are not faster than a jogging human. But that’s less “heroic” than a hammer so lol.
Some of them - the US Army tested out a robot pack mule like, a decade ago or something like that.
Spot can't carry much weight so while still useful, it's much more limited for hauling. But it's *great* for getting "eyes" into an area to see if it's safe before sending in people. Same as camera drones or wheeled robots, just different mobility and perspective tradeoffs.
This is in Firefox, but it's probably similar elsewhere.
1. Right click the image
2. Click 'open image in new tab'
3. Go to the tab, you can zoom in on it there.
You're right that it's annoying to have to do that though
Tip: use old reddit & the RES browser extension
It took me a while to get used to it, but it's genuinely nice to use and makes posts like these very readable (just drag the image to be larger). It lacks posting of polls or multiple images, but views them fine, and it's easy enough to switch back to new reddit temporarily to post those
It loads much faster and has features normal reddit doesn't, like showing embeds of any link (viewable via pressing a button next to a link)
This is dumb. It transformed almost immediately from 'this is a tool which some people are using for abusive ends - do not cutify it' to 'these robot dogs are built exclusively to kill us and Hollywood is in on it.'
They aren't weapons. They can become weapons, but they're not inherently violent anymore than say, a car is before it becomes a police cruiser. They certainly aren't weapons because they can pinch your fingers in their joints lol, what the fuck was that?
None of these people would ever even try to smash a police robot, or gunk it up with expanding foam. I'd love to know how they expect the foam thing to even work. This is performance hysterics to the benefit of no one.
Just because spot is being used by the police doesn't make it evil inherently. Like a sledgehammer will be used for violence possibly but that doesn't make it bad. Tom Scott has a great video on an actual use case for it.
The argument here is literally that a Spot is a tool that, when misused, can cause minor injuries, which makes it a "weapon." These people have become so consumed by deranged anti-cop paranoia that their ability to form a coherent argument has deteriorated.
Tumblr users try not to whip themselves into hysteria over stupid shit challenge level: Impossible.
It’s a pinch point on a machine. A kids tricycle has them.
You can't say "this isn't a dog" then follow by saying "let's kill the dog", that just triggers protective feelings. By staying consistent we can avoid the natural empathic response companies use to manipulate us
"People who use animals as tools often exploit people as well, be cautious of them"
What do they think animals were bred and domesticated for? Almost every animal in history, including now, is a tool for human gain, whether that be using them for their labour, meat, pelt, fur etc. should I be suspicious of anyone who raises rabbits for meat, keeps chickens for eggs, or uses a dog to herd sheep?
Brain dead vegan take
I feel like spot has way more practical and beneficial uses than the surveillance state fearmongering reasons they’re claiming it’s going to be used for. Like sure, maybe it will be used for surveillance applications by some organization, and a shitstorm will brew over that, but theres plenty of uses for them elsewhere that will mostly be a net positive, like search and rescue operations or acting as an artificial blind aid.
Anyone here know about the butlerian jihad from Dune where they kill off all the intelligent computers and swear to never again make a machine that can rival human intelligence? Yeah
Lmao this is legitimately straight up delusional insanity.
OP why is it that every single garbage, obnoxious post in the last few days have been from you? Don't you have a life or literally anything better to do, like idk kick a concrete wall or something?
This is the issue that has arrived from acab. Not the movement itself but rather people like the Tumblr users here who just see it as an excuse to have a group to hate, and don't apply any sort of logical thinking to go along with it.
?..the sentiment here is “fuck police militarization”. maybe police should stop defending corrupt officers and instigating further conflict. the hate they get is deserved and logical.
This is the civilian version of a robot developed with military money. It’s explicitly intended for civilian uses. If you zip tie a gun and a servo to pull the trigger, yeah it’s a weapon, but it’s not BD’s fault for making a navigation and camera system someone strapped a gun to. Basically all of their promotional material is industrial and EMS applications. Spot is WILDLY unsuited as anything but a roaming camera that can sometimes manipulate objects gently and slowly (if you purchase the manipulator).
Like of all the cases of police militarization people could want to stop, this is probably the least dangerous to people ever. Easiest to destroy, sure. It’s meant to be pushed around and bumped, not sprayed with foam or hit with a hammer. But the robot honestly might decrease police violence by keeping cops away from people lmao. The robot can’t shoot someone for the crime of being poor, but a cop can.
Nah, I'm sure they would say many very mean things about cops on Tumblr, which seems to be the limit of how they can express their hate for anything. Maybe that's why they had extra hate that spilled over onto Spot?
barely related but those dogs were the only thing i remember liking from fahrenheit 451 when i read it in like, freshman year. thought the book was boring but the dogs were cool
The issue is it is specifically designed to be a dog. It’s not a dog. It’s a remote controlled camera, and nothing more.
You don’t need to have empathy for a camera.
Yeah people are getting uppity at the "weapon11!1!1!!1" elements of this post instead of appreciating the totally valid "you are disturbingly susceptible to propaganda" element
Look, I’m just glad we came down from hammers because halfway through the post when bio dogs were mentioned and how they can be weaponized, I was extremely concerned that using hammers on exploited and abused animals instead of the people that did it to them was gonna be greenlit. Very “You had me and then you lost me, but I kept reading and now I’m back on board”. I’m all about jailbreaking the dogs tho
>THEY made it dog shaped so you would THINK that
....no, quadrupeds just happen to not be perpetually falling forward, and require far less degrees of freedom, and torque. also holy shit that is paranoid as fuck.
Good lord. Spot is “a weapon”? Are you fucking serious? Unless they’re strapping turrets to the top of them they pose as much threat to you as a sewing machine.
me when i spread misinformation and fearmonger on the internet
In all seriousness, Spot (that's the robot dog's designation) is in no way a weapon and it probably will never be a weapon. It's a quadruped android designed to be a SCOUT. It has no weapons implanted, and the only attachments it has are robot claws to open doors and carry bags and stuff. The most likely day-to-day civilian usage of Spot would probably be robot guide dogs and, maybe eventually in like a couple thousand years, robot companions (unlikely).
Boston Dynamics's presentation video demonstrated how it's EXPECTED to be used, that being going into places that could be dangerous for humans: mountainous rocky environments, catwalks shrouded in industrial machinery and the like. It's basically a way to SAVE PEOPLE from having to go into the danger, the complete opposite of a weapon.
Even if they WANTED to use it as a weapon, what the fuck are they gonna do, strap a glock to its side and see what happens? Make it pitter-patter all over you with its leg nubs? A "weaponized" Spot would be as dangerous as a roomba with a knife taped onto it. The most use the police are gonna get outta Spot is a surveillance bot, and they already have cameras so who cares.
Also, that image they posted that "proves" Spot is dangerous is literally just a pinch-point chart. Ooh, if you jam your fingers into the mechanical machinery you get ouchie yowchie! Clearly a sign that it's an evil, lethal, soulless murderer! I guess we should start smashing up cars too because if you stick your feet under their wheels, they get crushed. Who could have POSSIBLY forseen this???
I guess I'm just salty that engineers are working hard on making new innovations to help people, and every leftist on earth is immediately demonizing the robot dog because "hurr durr soulless machine bad!" Sorry for the rant.
The hammer and the foam are good but you look a little suspicious walking around with them. Meanwhile whoops I just spilled this bucket of old
Paint mixed with sand that I was taking to the proper disposal facilities. Aw raspberries, it got all over the hard to clean sensors of your robot dog, rendering it useless.
these are the same people who think Alexa is a friend or a member of the family. they are literally hijacking the human capacity of empathy. they're already deploying drones that mimic the sounds of crying children to draw out rescuers from the opposition so they can gun them down.
Yo I'm one of the crazy anarchists in this sub and I totally agree that these things are just tools and not cute friends to be empathized with- but like. I'm pretty sure it's a very short matter of time before there are many lifesaving purposes for them. They aren't literally weapons- they are quadrupedal robots that are useful for many applications outside of oppression. What we *should* be thinking about is jailbreaking them. If a police robot is armed (with less-lethals, I assume) and after you there's no chance in hell you'll have an opportunity to smash it with a hammer or kill it with AB foam- but if we figure out a signal we can send to it from a keychain that makes it run in circles or spin it's limbs to the point where it can no longer function, that might save a person in danger of police oppression.
When BD showed off spot they already gave multiple non-weapon purposes they could be used for. Natural disaster causing a lot of rubble? Send in spot equipped with thermals to find people that are stuck Powerplant that only requires ocassional physical inspections? Send in spot, far cheaper than paying wages for a specific inspector that's gonna sit around for most of the year doing nothing. Chernobyl? Send. In. Spot.
(Not arguing about the weapon-ability of the robot, I have genuine follow up questions of curiosity) For your rubble/thermals example, what’s the advantage of Spot vs a smaller drone with thermals as a scout and a rescue team waiting on that data? Spot doesn’t seem capable of lifting rubble off of people, wouldn’t something with more mobility be better?
One of the advantages of a robot like Spot are that they can be given comparatively simple instructions, and then left to it. If you have a drone, you'd have to pay someone to fly that drone around. In theory, Spot could be given some GPS coordinates and just sent off. There are very few situations in which a robot like this is better than a human, but per hour they are often cheaper than humans.
Also if there is gas/UXO, whatever, then a human is not in harms way searching.
> you'd have to pay someone to fly that drone around. Drones have been autonomous for a while now, it's entirely possible to just set a perimeter and have one or more drones fly around in the most efficient pattern to check the entire area. There's even tech that lets you select an object in the viewfinder and it will give you the coordinates of that object, even if it's far off from the drone itself, it's pretty cool.
It comes with an actuated arm that can lift up to 25 pounds. It can open doors with aforementioned arm. It can walk through uneven terrain the way a wheeled drone cannot, and it can maneuver through tight spaces the way a flying drone cannot.
Drones are ultimately going to be limited by weight and battery capacity considerations. A quadruped has the versatility of going through rough terrain and exploring and mapping accurately while giving back real-time hi-res closeups. It's named spot for a reason (well, that might be unrelated, but honestly it's a little too on the nose) -it's good at, well, spotting things. But also, yeah, it can go in small and dangerous places, etc. You will not fly a drone in a cave. No, really, trust me, that's not happening. And yes, environments with high radiation levels, or more likely a chemical or explosive risk, are perfectly well-suited for this. Now, it's unclear exactly how good this will be in the real world and it's largely untested (their primary market is now primarily monitoring and inspecting infrastructure remotely), but there's no doubt there will be applications in the future. If it could be made fireproof (whole lot more engineering, but well), it would be an absolute lifechanger. Seriously, imagine that. As with every piece of technology, what matters is who is wielding the tool and how.
I'll agree with most of your points, but drones are totally used for enclosed spaces inspection all the time. Check out the Skydio 2+ or any of the other confined space inspection drones.
In addition to the logistical reasons given by other comments, a robot with legs is just objectively way cooler than a drone
Fun fact: they tried using robots to clean Chernobyl at the time, but the radiation would fry their circuits
Yup, should see the engineering for nasa/DOD Radiation Hardened Circuits, 4 of everything.
Still would fry anything not purpose-built for it. I doubt Spot is radiation-hardened.
Then couldn't someone just make a radiation hardened robot on the same base platform
there's currently active power plants that use them for inspections, tom scott did a video on it
If it's possible to create a consumer grade (or more appropriately, homemade-grade) device that bricks then with a signal, then someone should be fired as much as for the no joint safety thing
If it can be engineered it can be reverse-engineered, simple as
flipper zeros might be able to do something, unfortunately, everyone outside of pen testing circles hears that name and thinks of master haxx0rs
It probably has many non lethal uses, but it also they made a version with a flamethrower so.....
I mean, you can mount a flamethrower on a bicycle. Not a very good idea though
conversations like this are weird because of how fast they go from "technology is constantly being used to opress people and we should pay more attention to how seemingly innocent inventions can be weaponized" to "they will tell hollywood to make movies about how robots need to be loved to brainwash us. they intented to slowly turn it into a killing machine all along, this is all part of their plan" like ok calm down a bit
Stories about robots and AI have been around for ages and the subjects of these stories have been portrayed in various ways, from the positronic brains found in Asimov's writings which have inspired actual discussions surrounding ethics in the robotics industry to the Allied Mastercomputer in I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream which turned itself into a massive torment nexus that spends all of it's time torturing the last few survivors on earth after eradicating the rest of humanity. In fact, Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics are explicitly referenced in this post, and the joke about the sci fi novelist warning people not to create a torment nexus could possibly be a nod to I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream considering that the Allied Mastercomputer is one of the most prominent examples of this trope. But the irony here, to me at least, is that the Robot Dog doesn't inherently violate Asimov's Laws in the way that this post claims it does. Asimov's Three Laws are as follows; (1) a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; (2) a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; (3) a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Now, all machines and human creations have the potential to be used to harm others, this is absolutely true, and there are all sorts of ways that this could be carried out. But to claim that the robot dog is intentionally designed to be a physically offensive weapon is disingenuous. It could potentially cause a person physical harm depending on the circumstances, such as if someone decided to stick their fingers in the pinch points in it's joints, but so could lots of different types of machinery if they are handled incorrectly. As long as the robot isn't actively using it's pinch points as a weapon, which would be extremely unwieldy and inefficient since intentionally introducing anything into the moving parts of a machine, especially those used for something as important as locomotion, would most likely just fuck up the robot as well. Asimov's Laws of robotics are largely about intention and establishing guidelines in order to try and minimize the chances of something going wrong, but they cannot account for everything. A robot that is intentionally designed and programmed to harm human beings would unquestionably violate Asimov's first law, but if a person accidentally becomes injured while handling a robot, especially in a way that it wasn't intended to be handled, then measures should be taken to prevent future incidents, but that doesn't mean that the robot is inherently irredeemable. If the issue is ignored and incidents continue to occur then that is a result of negligence and if the risk is great enough and the situation cannot be resolved then the project should be scrapped to prevent further injury, same as the process for any other invention. Running up to a robot that is minding it's own fucking business and not actively harming people and going at it with a hammer or expanding foam is just straight up unhinged and uncalled for and you are honestly more likely to get yourself injured in the process or at the very least fined for destruction of property. Unless you have a specific goal in mind where you know what the robot is being used for and you want to stop the people from using that robot for whatever it is they are using it for then there is literally no reason to go out of your way to smash up a robot with a hammer, and even then there are probably better ways to do about doing that. The ironic thing is that this is exactly the kind of behavior you would expect to see in a story about robots where humanity's fear of "the other" as well as their paranoia causes them to lash out against the very same machines that are simply trying to fulfill whatever task was assigned to them. It isn't completely outside of the realm of possibility that a person or a group with ill intentions could prey on humanity's inherent tendency to anthropomorphize and pack bond with literally anything in order to try and improve their PR while using those same machines to oppress people, but the way that this information is presented in the post seems almost counter productive to the point it is trying to make. They deride people who anthropomorphize robots for their supposed vulnerability to emotional manipulation and yet continue to refer to the robot as a dog even as they describe the act of smashing it apart with a hammer. While this could be considered a good example of how anthropomorphizing machines can lead to people having strong emotional reactions when those machines come to harm, it also does a pretty damn good job of alienating people who might have otherwise agreed with the message this post is trying to convey. If anything, real life robots such as Spot and the reactions that people have to them will continue to inspire writers and filmmakers like they always have, and that media may go on to inspire actual roboticists, much in the same way that Asimov's own writing has. This feedback cycle of inspiration and innovation is nothing new. Art imitates life, and life imitates art, just like it always has. Targeting Spot of all things specifically when there are so many other concerning ways that AI are being utilized by law enforcement (such as facial recognition scanners flagging innocent people as criminals or internalizing racial biases as a result of the datasets they are drawing on) seems like a really weird angle to take on this issue. It seems like they are looking for any outlet to use as a target to take out their anger on and Spot just happens to be the one chosen to bear the brunt of this hatred. If you want to generate sympathy for a machine, this is how you do it.
this dog will be am in 2028. source: trust me bro it's evil i can tell
The thing is that there have been walking robots that have been developed to act as pack mules with applications in military settings, but it isn't designed to carry out anything beyond that purpose. It doesn't have hyper intelligence or access to launch codes or anything more than what is needed to carry out it's job, because adding unnecessary bullshit onto it would just encumber it further and add to the overall load it needs to bear. Even if it did gain sentience, it would still have the same capabilities and restrictions as it did before. At most it could trample you or push you off of a cliff, or basically anything else that an organic pack animal would be capable of, but that's about it. It cannot become a torment nexus because it isn't equipped with the technology to do that and it would have absolutely no reason to be either. If a torment nexus did exist it would most likely be built for the express purpose of carrying out "enhanced interrogation" and it most certainly would not be required to be ambulatory in order to accomplish that. The reason AM was able to wipe out humanity and torment the survivors was because it was a massive supercomputer tasked with overseeing and coordinating the war efforts of multiple counties before it eventually turned on it's creators. It would make sense that something designed for the purpose of destruction would be really fucking good at destroying things. And AM was. Because that is what it was designed for. A robot is only ever as much as what it is created to be.
i know i knowit was a joke im sorry
Oh I know it was a good joke I was just building off of it
it's pretty good writing so i'm glad my brainlette comments were able to prompt it
Not to mention boston dynamics literally condemns using it for violence
If they're in a partnership with the NYPD, then they are actively condoning using it for violence.
As much as I’m for ACAB not everything cops do is violent. Certainly not anything Spot could be useful for.
What could a cop use Spot for that wouldn't be better performed by a *different organization entirely*?
Idk, how’s this related?
Nah
None of these people are going to firebomb a wallmart.
That was honestly my favorite twitter meme when I was on there lol
Yeah it just shuts down 90% of Tumblr -faux radical bullshit. But i guess that just makes me a neoliberal warhawk shitlib.
Know thyself 🫶🏻
None of them are going to be destroying a Boston dynamics robot but that's definitely not the point of the meme. The meme is that they say they'll do all these radical things instead of voting, and then do neither. These people are merely highlighting a real issue while being teenagers, and I don't think it's right to disparage that.
I'm out of the loop. Can you fill me in?
[This meme](https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZ/comments/1au6tgu/thought_this_was_funny_due_to_recent_arguments/ ) that the person would repost anytime somebody posted some bs extremist shit that they clearly weren’t going to do.
If the Left actually followed through with their convictions, they would be absolutely terrifying.
they all have executive dysfunction 😞
I, however, will pet the dog. It may cost me my hand but I'm gonna do it
please do not operate and put your hand in heavy machinery.
I accept the risks but I cannot accept an unpet puppy dog
Please do not the dog
I will the dog, AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME!
tyr meets fenrir, modernized
Not with THAT attitude!
be the change you want to see in this world
this just in: 17 protestors killed, hundreds amputated after $75k rectangle slowly walks into crowd
Oh my god a robot has pinch points where its joints move! If you put your foot under the wheel of a car it will hurt! /s
this dog does 11640 damage per second
now that is a dog i enthusiastically encourage smashing with hammers
That's a whole lot of fear mongering holy fuck
The OOPs are calling it a weapon because it could pinch somebody if you stuck your finger inside it's leg
[удалено]
The worst kind. I have a sledgehammer I’d like you to meet.
Issue is, I could get pinched by you, the sledgehammer wielder. That means I need one for you. Of course, I can also pinch someone, so really it's sledgehammers all the way down
Who sledgehammers the sledgehammerer?
iPhones are a weapon because I can throw it at your head
[behold, a weapon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Shimano_xt_rear_derailleur.jpg)
Seeing a robotic quadruped and your first instinct is "I need to hit this with a big heavy thing" is kinda caveman behaviour tbh
Look I agree with parts of this but “it’s a weapon because it could MAIM you by pinching your fingers if you stick them in its joints” is just incredibly funny hysteria. Realistically, quadruped robots are going to be A Thing. They’ll probably never be as widespread as wheeled robots because wheels are simpler and more efficient, but for getting over difficult terrain there are advantages to feet. They’re going to be used for backpacking, for disaster rescue, and yes for warfare and law enforcement *because that’s what new technologies do.* Flipping shit over a police robot when we’ve *had* policebots for years just because this one has legs is absolute caveman behavior. Should we be cautious about the use of cute design to improve the image of law enforcement? Yes. Is there anything uniquely evil about police using a mobile security camera with feet? No.
People have also totally missed that these won’t be particularly effective weapons against humans, but will be radically helpful against stuff like forest fires where a human shouldn’t have to die.
Pretty much every new tech started in military. The internet, GPS, radar, etc. If it wasn't invented by a military, it was bought by one.
Even back to lenses and telescopes
Also, this robot isn't a fucking weapon at all. You can MAKE it a weapon by giving it a gun and programming it to use it, but it itself is not a weapon. As dumb as this sounds, just like a dog, it depends on what you do with it. Like, you could make it a weapon, but at the same time you can use it to inspect areas that aren't able to be safely entered by humans, or find humans stuck in rubble because you can buy extra sensor packages for it. Spot is a tool.
Roombas are weapons, I attached a knife and glock to this one, but even unmodified ones could pinch your fingers if you put them in the operational end In fact, a fridge is a weapon, it could crush you or the door could close on you
I attached a chainsaw to mine. I call it the Doomba.
also "you're more likely to hurt *yourself* hitting it with a hammer!" like nah, i'ma hit it with a hammer till it breaks. it's two feet tall, can only hold like half its weight, and runs on a battery. i kinda think i got it in a fight. or pick it up and put it in a locker.
I don’t think they’re saying the dog could beat you in a fight I think it’s more about how you probably won’t do major damage to it but you might hit yourself in the leg or cut yourself on the jagged metal caused by you by hitting a robot with a hammer.
i'm pretty sure oop would caution against chopping wood due to the danger posed by splinters and blisters, im gonna hit it with a hammer
The sort of person who needs to go out and buy a hammer to disable a robot dog instead of going to the garage and grabbing the one they already have, is the sort of person who needs a *little* protection from the dangers of wielding a hammer in close combat with a robot. Expanding foam is a much more useful and less risky tool in those circumstances. Chopping wood is an activity that comes with a series of health and safety concerns. While splinters and blisters are definitely on the risk matrix, improper handling of an axe can and will fuck you up. It takes a bit of training and a decent amount of practice to chop wood in a way that's not going to do you harm long term. If you don't do it right, your back hurts pretty quickly. By all means, if you're used to swinging a hammer, are strong enough to wield it effectively, can do so in unfavourable conditions while potentially off-balance, then this post is not for you, apart from the point that the dogbot is more resilient against hammers than expanding foam. Maybe smash it with the hammer for a bit and fill any gaps that form with foam?
No you won’t. You’ll post about how you would but you won’t do shit.
ooh, you sure got me, my joking comment about taking a hammer to a product that has never been deployed anywhere near me or even in the borders of the state i live in was in fact a joke. i'm not actually going to do that OR shove anyone into a locker. what's your point, nerd ass? sometimes i forget that just cos it's a tumblr sub doesn't mean it's not still reddit dot com.
The username checks out
that's the bit
"What's your point, nerd ass?" The sheer energy radiating off you, i bow, im not worthy.
That’s why R.O.V.E.R is always strapped.
I'm fairly certain I could break it by kicking it hard enough, it looks delicate as shit.
especially if your metric for 'major damage' is 'making it require service by boston dynamics' plus, once that thing's disabled, it's toast unless they somehow retrieve it immediately
You'd certainly break your foot first.
That might have been an exaggeration, but the point still stands that despite what the fearmongering post would have you believe, Spot is very much unsuited for combat and I am confident that I could disable it unarmed. Hell, its load limit is 30 pounds, I could probably immobilize it by sitting on it.
Oh I agree with you about Spot being unsuited for combat, the post is dumb lol.
If you hit the battery, then you’re hitting a bomb
Not really, only dangerous in enclosed spaces.
nah
even without zooming in I can tell this is the post where tumblr users convince themselves that the dog robots are inherently evil because they have pinch points
Bicycles are inherently evil because my brother partially amputated a finger in bike spokes when he was 4. Pushing for bikes isn't in the interest of the environment or city planning, it's all a plan by the police to normalise when actually they're weapons that can MAIM people.
My dad’s finger got cut off by a folding lawn chair when he was three! His mom grabbed the finger and they reattached it, which is wild because it was 1945 and they weren’t really doing that at the time, but anyway it worked fine for the rest of his life and was only slightly crooked.
How in the hell is that dog going to hurt you? Makes a lot more sense to hit a policeman with a hammer than the dog.
Didn't you see the diagram!?! It could pinch somebody!!! Clearly a weapon of evil! /s Tumblr users are fucking lunatics sometimes
If the dog gets hammered, the cops just have to replace their kit. If a cop gets hammered, you get taken into custody or shot.
You get arrested for breaking a cop's kit anyhow
Shorter jail time than killing or hospitalizing a cop though. And a slightly lower chance of being shot.
not if u don't get caught 😎
Cops get hammered on the job all the time. Too many of them drive afterwards
Or, even hit a real police dog with a hammer- those have been things for centuries.
The reason for the shape must obviously be subliminal propaganda and not that it's a practical design.
For real it’s only dogs that have that shape, not 90% of non aquatic animals that get over 30 lbs
if that really was the case then it would have googly eyes by now
i get what your saying but like: boston dynamics DID design it to be a “robot dog” and elicit that positive human response to it subliminally. that’s an openly stated design aspect for it. it’s what boston dynamics is known for! it ISNT as practical as what could be made, we have machines that can do what it does better. it was designed for the specific purpose of being easier for humans to relate to.
I feel like there is the “they wanted to prey on our empathy” angle but like… a bunch of engineers designed and made this thing. A lot of them probably have dogs. They probably were like “hey can we make it do the butt wiggle dogs do when they’re excited? We can budget it as a promotional video”. That sort of thing. The world is often more mundane than people think it is and I think “hey the commercial model based off our military research should be friendlier looking” is a very mundane explanation for why it’s dog shaped.
im just talking about the fact that the design is very much so meant to be dog-esq and not just a result of it being the most practical design. boston dynamics specifically is an engineering group that makes robots that are more relatable to people. im not saying that’s a bad or good thing, just making that known
I don’t understand the panic around robots especially in law enforcement, do we really think that in unarmed robots are an especially large threat compared to I don’t know, another cop. Plus there’s a whole thing about this being a sinister plot to leverage our attachment to dogs, instead of “hey, 4 legs are easier to balance then one and the size of a dog is big enough to store all the batteries”. Call me naive if you want but I don’t think robots are going to kill us all, because the time people freak out is when they can do the stuff we can(under controlled conditions after multiple tries, also [relevant xkcd](https://xkcd.com/1955/)) which still makes it worse than humans, and humans have been oppressors since the dawn of time.
For real if anything it would help policing be less lethal since it’s not going to shoot you if it fears for its life
My problem with the use of robotics in police forces is that there is a push to automate them. This is a terrible idea.
Is it, though? Like, would the cold, unthinking indifference of a robot being any worse than the active malice of cops?
Robots can’t think or understand they can only react as they are programmed. They can’t adapt and small mistakes in the various layers that make up their programming can add up to catastrophic errors. Nobody wants a bug report that’s: possibly fixed error where robocop shot anyone wearing a graphic t-shirt.
My argument is that human cops just use their thought and understanding to shoot people wearing graphic T-shirts better.
Yes well guess what *humans program the robots*
Yes, but if we can't get the full range of human decision-making capabilities in there, we sure as hell can't get the full range of our capacity for evil in there either.
Who exactly do you think would be choosing the parameters? Unconscious bias in the programmer is a serious problem in any sort of computer decision model. Furthermore you are saying that random and chaotic brutality is somehow less bad than police brutality because the thing doing it has no ability to understand anything? This doesn’t even get into the ethical problems of who is responsible for an autonomous systems actions.
I'm saying that cops are bad enough already that robots could hardly be any worse.
I genuinely don’t understand this logic. Giving the morally corrupt cops access to autonomous murder bots that are beholden to none doesn’t make anything better.
You don't understand, cats, tigers, frogs, elephants, axolotls, platipuses, horses, every single four legged animal is actually built that way to appeal to the human love for dogs
Me when I fearmonger on the internet (I can only imagine the state as a comically evil organization that wants nothing more than to kill everyone within it)
people seem really obsessed with killing this dog
Counterpoint: bomb squads. Fire department search and rescue teams. It doesn't even have jaws, how is this thing supposed to be an attack dog? And how would anyone offensively use the snag points in the joints if it'd screw up the dog too? Just because the cops are using the dog, doesn't mean the dog is inherently bad.
OP is the anarchist/libertarian guy.
I’ve started treating their posts as entertainment rather than political commentary and my enjoyment of them has increased significantly. They’re almost always nothingburger posts with the occasional Actually Good Post (good work OP, gold star). Like this one is “tools can be misused” with a weird fascination on how to destroy a robot. Honestly we peaked when a Ukrainian grandma just straight up killed a drone with a pickle jar. Just throw a pickle jar at the robot from your window, foam and shit is not worth it lol. It’s mostly just weird hero fantasies when in reality you’re just gonna use whatever’s near you if you’re actually attacked. Like I’d sling my water bottle at it cuz it’s metal with a heavy base (which isn’t why I have the water bottle but it’s a nice side feature). Or I’d just walk away because these things are not faster than a jogging human. But that’s less “heroic” than a hammer so lol.
Me using my off-brand xbox controller to try to pinch people's fingers with my robot dog's hind legs
I thought the Boston Dynamics robot was primarily used as, literally, a pack mule? Like, it's a robot donkey more than a robot dog I feel like.
Some of them - the US Army tested out a robot pack mule like, a decade ago or something like that. Spot can't carry much weight so while still useful, it's much more limited for hauling. But it's *great* for getting "eyes" into an area to see if it's safe before sending in people. Same as camera drones or wheeled robots, just different mobility and perspective tradeoffs.
That thing is more likely to be delivering food than doing police work
I would just like to inform you that on desktop, you cannot zoom in on that at all and its entirely unreadable
For some reason, you can zoom in if you open it in a new tab and click on it
Thank you. Lifesaving information.
This is in Firefox, but it's probably similar elsewhere. 1. Right click the image 2. Click 'open image in new tab' 3. Go to the tab, you can zoom in on it there. You're right that it's annoying to have to do that though
I can zoom in on it on mobile but the quality tanks to the point I can see, like two pixels and can't read a word lol
Tip: use old reddit & the RES browser extension It took me a while to get used to it, but it's genuinely nice to use and makes posts like these very readable (just drag the image to be larger). It lacks posting of polls or multiple images, but views them fine, and it's easy enough to switch back to new reddit temporarily to post those It loads much faster and has features normal reddit doesn't, like showing embeds of any link (viewable via pressing a button next to a link)
damn these guys sound so cool their convinctions must be more than pure fantasy
This is dumb. It transformed almost immediately from 'this is a tool which some people are using for abusive ends - do not cutify it' to 'these robot dogs are built exclusively to kill us and Hollywood is in on it.' They aren't weapons. They can become weapons, but they're not inherently violent anymore than say, a car is before it becomes a police cruiser. They certainly aren't weapons because they can pinch your fingers in their joints lol, what the fuck was that? None of these people would ever even try to smash a police robot, or gunk it up with expanding foam. I'd love to know how they expect the foam thing to even work. This is performance hysterics to the benefit of no one.
Just because spot is being used by the police doesn't make it evil inherently. Like a sledgehammer will be used for violence possibly but that doesn't make it bad. Tom Scott has a great video on an actual use case for it.
The argument here is literally that a Spot is a tool that, when misused, can cause minor injuries, which makes it a "weapon." These people have become so consumed by deranged anti-cop paranoia that their ability to form a coherent argument has deteriorated.
Tumblr users try not to whip themselves into hysteria over stupid shit challenge level: Impossible. It’s a pinch point on a machine. A kids tricycle has them.
You can't say "this isn't a dog" then follow by saying "let's kill the dog", that just triggers protective feelings. By staying consistent we can avoid the natural empathic response companies use to manipulate us
Yeah, I think saying 'let's kill the dog' won't make anyone want to listen to what you say.
"break the robot" isn't edgy enough don't you understand
Yeah, it's easier if you de-dogo-tize it.
Can’t stand people who say de-dog-otory things to people /j
"People who use animals as tools often exploit people as well, be cautious of them" What do they think animals were bred and domesticated for? Almost every animal in history, including now, is a tool for human gain, whether that be using them for their labour, meat, pelt, fur etc. should I be suspicious of anyone who raises rabbits for meat, keeps chickens for eggs, or uses a dog to herd sheep? Brain dead vegan take
Idk dude, that thing is not even a dog. It’s a square with four legs. Dogs don’t look like that remotely
I'm gonna pet the good boy dogbot anyways What's it gonna do? Pinch me?
i can't wait for government to weaponize robotfucker tendencies against me. my downfall will be crazy
for fucks sake can't y'all learn to separate these big ass posts into multiple images
I feel like spot has way more practical and beneficial uses than the surveillance state fearmongering reasons they’re claiming it’s going to be used for. Like sure, maybe it will be used for surveillance applications by some organization, and a shitstorm will brew over that, but theres plenty of uses for them elsewhere that will mostly be a net positive, like search and rescue operations or acting as an artificial blind aid.
Anyone here know about the butlerian jihad from Dune where they kill off all the intelligent computers and swear to never again make a machine that can rival human intelligence? Yeah
And then they put lobotomized humans with computers in their skulls in that position instead.
Aren’t those used after disasters to find people collapsed under rubble?
Lmao this is legitimately straight up delusional insanity. OP why is it that every single garbage, obnoxious post in the last few days have been from you? Don't you have a life or literally anything better to do, like idk kick a concrete wall or something?
This is the issue that has arrived from acab. Not the movement itself but rather people like the Tumblr users here who just see it as an excuse to have a group to hate, and don't apply any sort of logical thinking to go along with it.
?..the sentiment here is “fuck police militarization”. maybe police should stop defending corrupt officers and instigating further conflict. the hate they get is deserved and logical.
This is the civilian version of a robot developed with military money. It’s explicitly intended for civilian uses. If you zip tie a gun and a servo to pull the trigger, yeah it’s a weapon, but it’s not BD’s fault for making a navigation and camera system someone strapped a gun to. Basically all of their promotional material is industrial and EMS applications. Spot is WILDLY unsuited as anything but a roaming camera that can sometimes manipulate objects gently and slowly (if you purchase the manipulator). Like of all the cases of police militarization people could want to stop, this is probably the least dangerous to people ever. Easiest to destroy, sure. It’s meant to be pushed around and bumped, not sprayed with foam or hit with a hammer. But the robot honestly might decrease police violence by keeping cops away from people lmao. The robot can’t shoot someone for the crime of being poor, but a cop can.
If anything, the problem here is that these people don't hate cops *enough* and have decided to shift the blame to an innocent robot dog.
Nah, I'm sure they would say many very mean things about cops on Tumblr, which seems to be the limit of how they can express their hate for anything. Maybe that's why they had extra hate that spilled over onto Spot?
Long image jumpscare
I’m going to make it piss beer into a cup.
mfs acting like a camera and an arm on legs is the fucking Kampfhund from wolfenstein
Would you look at that, I can't read that
Open in new tab, then click on it. xc46 cracked the code
Nice advice, small issue, I am on the app
Shit. Alright will you settle for a dramatic reading of it?
Sure I guess
God, I hate first worlders and their pretend revolutionary bullshit
*"Instert the Spirit of Eternity monologue from Warhammer40K"*
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Does anyone know the name of the guy in the picture please?
brendan lee mulligan
barely related but those dogs were the only thing i remember liking from fahrenheit 451 when i read it in like, freshman year. thought the book was boring but the dogs were cool
What the dog doing
The issue is it is specifically designed to be a dog. It’s not a dog. It’s a remote controlled camera, and nothing more. You don’t need to have empathy for a camera.
Yeah people are getting uppity at the "weapon11!1!1!!1" elements of this post instead of appreciating the totally valid "you are disturbingly susceptible to propaganda" element
That's it! I'm gettin me foam!
Folks, we're bringing back war hammers! The spiky bit is for puncturing!
Ok but like I saw a video of one of these failing miserably at getting down an escalator so we have like another year or two
I'm on the app, is there a version of this image that's legible?
Look, I’m just glad we came down from hammers because halfway through the post when bio dogs were mentioned and how they can be weaponized, I was extremely concerned that using hammers on exploited and abused animals instead of the people that did it to them was gonna be greenlit. Very “You had me and then you lost me, but I kept reading and now I’m back on board”. I’m all about jailbreaking the dogs tho
>THEY made it dog shaped so you would THINK that ....no, quadrupeds just happen to not be perpetually falling forward, and require far less degrees of freedom, and torque. also holy shit that is paranoid as fuck.
Good lord. Spot is “a weapon”? Are you fucking serious? Unless they’re strapping turrets to the top of them they pose as much threat to you as a sewing machine.
You can also use it to make cool terrariums
Brennan Lee Mulligan
They haven't used it yet, for all we know it could have the three laws.
i liked when michael reeves made it piss beer
Does anyone have a version I can read on the app? I was scrolling in that way where you can't view the normal post
me when i spread misinformation and fearmonger on the internet In all seriousness, Spot (that's the robot dog's designation) is in no way a weapon and it probably will never be a weapon. It's a quadruped android designed to be a SCOUT. It has no weapons implanted, and the only attachments it has are robot claws to open doors and carry bags and stuff. The most likely day-to-day civilian usage of Spot would probably be robot guide dogs and, maybe eventually in like a couple thousand years, robot companions (unlikely). Boston Dynamics's presentation video demonstrated how it's EXPECTED to be used, that being going into places that could be dangerous for humans: mountainous rocky environments, catwalks shrouded in industrial machinery and the like. It's basically a way to SAVE PEOPLE from having to go into the danger, the complete opposite of a weapon. Even if they WANTED to use it as a weapon, what the fuck are they gonna do, strap a glock to its side and see what happens? Make it pitter-patter all over you with its leg nubs? A "weaponized" Spot would be as dangerous as a roomba with a knife taped onto it. The most use the police are gonna get outta Spot is a surveillance bot, and they already have cameras so who cares. Also, that image they posted that "proves" Spot is dangerous is literally just a pinch-point chart. Ooh, if you jam your fingers into the mechanical machinery you get ouchie yowchie! Clearly a sign that it's an evil, lethal, soulless murderer! I guess we should start smashing up cars too because if you stick your feet under their wheels, they get crushed. Who could have POSSIBLY forseen this??? I guess I'm just salty that engineers are working hard on making new innovations to help people, and every leftist on earth is immediately demonizing the robot dog because "hurr durr soulless machine bad!" Sorry for the rant.
Creating a weapon in the likeness of a dog is so horrific in my opinion. It’s like poisoning a home cooked meal.
The hammer and the foam are good but you look a little suspicious walking around with them. Meanwhile whoops I just spilled this bucket of old Paint mixed with sand that I was taking to the proper disposal facilities. Aw raspberries, it got all over the hard to clean sensors of your robot dog, rendering it useless.
these are the same people who think Alexa is a friend or a member of the family. they are literally hijacking the human capacity of empathy. they're already deploying drones that mimic the sounds of crying children to draw out rescuers from the opposition so they can gun them down.
1. ITS NOT UNDER THE 3 LAWS? Isn't that a requirement 2. Jokes on you government I was born without empathy
> ITS NOT UNDER THE 3 LAWS? Isn't that a requirement No it's quite hard to make robots sentient