Gun Dogs

Real dogs still beat robots on stairs, rubble and fences. So the gun goes on a real dog. The camera and stabilised mount on its harness stream to an officer, who picks the target and authorises the shot from the car. The dog flanks the suspect and talks them down through a speaker.

It works, which is the problem. Officers are tempted to stay in the car and let the dogs handle it.

A blind veteran fits a gun to his robot guide dog. It shoots a robber in both hands, and he is the one prosecuted. “If I had my sight, I’d have been within my rights to kill him,” he says. “The robot isn’t exercising a right. It’s enabling me to exercise mine.”

In the US, people with disabilities already experience non-fatal violent crime at almost four times the rate of others. If the state can send a robotic bodyguard, why can’t a vulnerable citizen? When a machine acts as your body, your eyes or your bodyguard, which rights extend through it, and which responsibilities stay with you?

“The robot is not exercising a right. It is enabling me to exercise mine.” — A voice from the scenario.