When I discovered Joel Garreau’s article Bots on the Ground, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. He described a scenario where a new kind of military robot was being demonstrated to an Army colonel. The robot was long and segmented with many legs and designed to step on and trigger land mines. It was designed by famed BEAM roboticist Mark Tilden whose robots can perform with primitive behaviors toward a larger goal even if they become damaged. The robot was successfully detonating land mines, losing pieces of itself as it moved along to the next mine. When the observing colonel saw the last vestiges of a robot apparently struggling to make its way to the next land mine, the colonel stopped the demonstration and declared the whole thing as inhumane. Here’s an excerpt:
Finally it was down to one leg. Still, it pulled itself forward. Tilden was ecstatic. The machine was working splendidly.
The human in command of the exercise, however — an Army colonel — blew a fuse.
The colonel ordered the test stopped.
Why? asked Tilden. What’s wrong?
The colonel just could not stand the pathos of watching the burned, scarred and crippled machine drag itself forward on its last leg.
This test, he charged, was inhumane.
Garreau went on to share other stories about soldiers who have named, promoted, and in some cases award Purple Hearts to their robots.
Given the aggressive push to introduce more robots into the military, the interactions between humans and their robots in the armed forces has become more common than one might find in civilian life. Observations such as the ones Garreau describes are likely an indication of what we as civilians can expect when the per-capita of robot-to-humans becomes similar to that in the field.
One example of a group with robots comes from the popularity of the Roomba floor cleaning robot from iRobot. A study from Georgia Tech formally observed and documented the bond between Roombas and their users.
Some interesting observations included
- A person’s introduction of his robot to his parents
- Bringing the Roomba along on travels
- Cleaning the floor for the Roomba
There were other incidents of anthropomorphizing but none were very surprising. The tendency for humans to want to name and bond with their mechanical counterparts dates way back. Just think about the bond seafaring captains have had with their ships.
The recent study and Garreau’s observations indicate a readiness to accept robots into human life. The introductions of iRobot’s ConnectR and Erector’s Spykee indicate that business is ready to deliver.
Sources:
Thank you for your kind mention of my piece. In it, my reporting lead me to offer a new definition of robot, in part because most of the traditional ones don’t work very well. This definition is entirely based on the reflexive relationship between man and machine: “A robot is any machine that the human nervous system responds to as animate.” Animate meaning life-like.
Joel