By Futurist Thomas Frey
Recently, I went through a mental exercise that started with a simple question: If I owned a robotic dog for protection, what would it actually protect me from? This seemingly simple query opened up a fascinating rabbit hole about the nature of security, the evolution of protective technology, and why we insist on making our future guardians wear fur coats they don’t need.
Unlike a biological dog that relies on instinct, keen senses, and thousands of years of evolutionary programming, a robotic guardian would need to be deliberately designed to recognize and warn about specific threats. So if this robot’s sole purpose was to alert me to impending danger, what forms of danger should it be attuned to? The answer reveals far more about human psychology than robotics.
Continue reading… “The Robotic Guard Dog Paradox: Why Your Future Protector Won’t Look Like a Dog”