This is a local news story.
There has been very little mainstream media coverage about the fact that cops across the country are now introducing walking robots.
Probably, because it makes people a little bit uncomfortable.
The NYPD has a new police dog in its ranks — and this one doesn’t need to eat, sleep, or poop. It is made of circuits and hydraulics.
The department is testing a 70-pound robotic dog that uses “cameras and lights mounted on the device which allow the NYPD to view its surroundings in real-time,” Sgt. Jessica McRorie, a police spokesperson, told FOX 5 NY.
Police used the robot to clear a crime scene in the Bronx on Tuesday. Cops deployed the dog during an investigation in the Wakefield section.
…
“The device deployed today to the inside of an apartment located within the confines of the 47th Precinct as part of an ongoing investigation,” McRorie said, “and it was determined there were not any individuals inside of the location.”
The presence of the robot — which is painted blue, black, and yellow and has the label “DIGIDOG” on its side — drew attention from bystanders on the street near the crime scene. Several people pulled out their camera phones to take pictures and videos of the robo-K9-cop in action.
The robot dog, made by Boston Dynamics, can climb stairs, search and examine potentially dangerous areas, and carry a small cargo if needed. It can be equipped with optional gear to perform other tasks such as opening doors, recovering objects, and take measurements.
People should probably be a little bit uncomfortable with this. It could obviously be mounted with weapons.
This is the beginning of a revolution, whereby robots will become the main police force within the next decade or so. That eliminates the whole “racism” problem, no?
They can just be programmed that if someone is black, then by default it is impossible for them to be guilty of a crime.
It should be concerning.
These machines are getting very close to the point where you are going to be looking at a total lockdown by robotic cops.
If you just think about it, these humanoid robots they’re building – how would you stop one?
They could be plated with titanium. You would need a rocket launcher or something. A laser gun? Maybe depleted uranium mortar shells?
I’ve spent a lot of time playing video games, and I can tell you that any game that tries to be realistic (i.e., definitely not Cyberpunk 2077) makes it so conventional weapons are helpless against a serious battle robot. Obviously, the fact that the games have robots means they take place in the future, so there are also future weapons to fight them. Electromagnetic railguns and so on.
Furthermore, robots would have no limitations, in terms of any kind of behavior.
Of course, the one thing we know is that they won’t have very good security, because cyber security is not a focus of the US Government. Even if Boston Dynamics sells them with good security, the US federal government will insist on refusing updates and so on.
So maybe the robot army that is going to get deployed on our streets will just be hacked by teenagers and Nigerian Princes for their own purposes.
But yeah – another fun thing for the next decade that the media isn’t talking about: the military and police being replaced with murder robots.