The AGI Robots are Coming

LIFETIME – In a primitive form, kids can own these toys now

Johnnie Waterson was nearly nine years old and very persuasive. 'Please Dad, do let me have one, I've always wanted a little pet dog. Jimmy next door has one. I want one, too. Please, Daddy!'

His generous father gave him a fond look, but then he frowned. 'We'll have to see, son. Your mother is not very keen on the idea with all the messes it would make around the house. And, would you always look after it?'

'Oh yes, Dad, of course I would.'

'What about its meals?'

'I'd buy its special food with my pocket money, if you give me some more, and feed it every day.'

'What if you forgot one day?'

'No, Dad, I never would. Oh, Dad, please let me have one.'

'Well son, there's another problem. What about when we go away on vacation? I'm not sure if we can afford the cost of a kennel. They’re pretty expensive nowadays.'

'I thought about that, too, Dad, and my pal Jimmy across the street says he'll look after it whenever we're away.'

'Very good, son, but perhaps that means he wants us to look after his dog when he and his parents are away?'

'No, Dad, his grandparents always have it.'

'Well, Johnny boy, you do seem to have things organized, but don’t you ever forget that a pet is not only for Christmas. I'll have a talk with your mother.'

'Gee, thanks, Dad. I can hardly wait'

Christmas morning soon came, and like many children do on that glorious morning, Johnnie awoke earlier than usual to a welcome pile of gifts. Together with all the smaller presents on his desk, he could see a large box with his name on it. Johnnie eagerly hopped out of bed, put on his dressing gown and slippers and looked around. No sign of a little dog anywhere, though. He despondently began opening the smaller packages. They contained socks and a tee shirt, some chocolate, and all the usual not very interesting things. When his parents came in, he tried to hide his disappointment with the average presents. But, his father smiled at him reassuringly. 'Open that big box, son. I think you’ll love what you’ll find inside it.'

Johnny shrugged and proceeded to open the box. However, inside was not the cute little puppy that he craved. Instead, nestled in bubble plastic wrapping, he found what appeared to be a nearly fully-grown dog, together with a large handbook. He was surprised at first, and then puzzled.

'But it's not a real dog, Dad. It's just a toy ..!'

'Oh, wait a minute, son, and you'll see what it really is,' his father exclaimed with a proud chuckle. He flip opened a patch on the underside of the creature and checked the small panel revealed underneath it. 'It's a Robodog, fully charged and ready to go, the very latest intelligent model robot dog. I'll activate it now, like this, and you'll soon see what it does.'

He pressed the startup button, and the Robodog’s eyes immediately opened. It got up, yawned, and began turning around peering everywhere, until suddenly it saw Johnnie. It trotted up to him and began to wag its tail. Then it rubbed itself against him and gave a couple of contented little barks.

Johnnie was impressed. He picked up a small rubber ball and rolled it across the room. 'Fetch it, boy!' he called.

The Robodog jumped up and leapt across the room. It stopped the ball with one front paw and then batted the ball back to Johnnie with the other paw. The parents were even more impressed than their son was.

'A real dog couldn't do that,' Johnnie's mother exclaimed. 'And it'll stay clean and tidy, too. You won't even have to feed it, so you can keep all of your pocket money!'

'That’s right, and it automatically knows when it needs recharging,' his dad added. 'It goes to the nearest power socket and plugs itself in.'

His mother left the bedroom and went downstairs to get breakfast ready. Johnnie and his dad opened the big handbook and started to absorb everything. The largest section outlined several things the Robodog could not do, and things that should never be tried, like throwing a stick over a high fence, or into a river, and then asking the Robodog to retrieve it.

After breakfast, Johnnie and his dad took the dog out into the garden and began to play with it. They soon found that it could run faster than they could, but it always returned when Johnnie called it.

After only an hour, the lucky boy knew that he already loved this dog. He went across the street to show Jimmy his new pet, who obediently trotted along beside him 'I'm going to call him Doggie,' he announced proudly. 'Let’s have a game of soccer with Doggie as goalie. I’ll explain to him what to do.'

The game was a big success at first. Doggie learned fast, and soon proved to be an excellent player. However, they had to keep Jimmy’s real dog out of the way, and after a while, the boys gave up trying to get a ball past the now expert goalkeeper, even when they widened the goal posts. They decided to take their dogs for a walk instead.

The path across the field led to the riverbank. On the way there, the boys picked up a stick each and kept throwing them as far ahead as they could. As expected, both dogs tore after them, but Doggie could run so fast, it always got to its own stick first and then quickly retrieved the other one meant for Spot. Spot clearly became very frustrated with this new competitor, but never attempted to attack Doggie or try to take a stick from him.

The boys reached the riverbank and walked along it with their pets. Suddenly, Jimmy threw a stick into the river.

'Go get it, Spot!' he shouted.

Both dogs leapt into action, but Doggie suddenly stopped dead. It knew water when it saw it. Spot soon returned triumphantly with the stick and proudly dropped it at Jimmy’s feet. Then, he proceeded to shake himself vigorously to get dry, ejecting a spray of river water onto Doggie. Immediately, there sounded a series of high-pitched beeps, and a loud, very stern, voice began to repeat continuously.

'Warning! Possible malfunction…Wet environment situation.'

It only stopped when the two boys used their handkerchiefs and had the Robodog completely dry again. Spot, meanwhile, kept trying to get Jimmy to pick up the stick and throw it in the river again, which he eventually did. On his return, Spot dropped the stick by Jimmy again and then went over to Doggie ready to have another good shake. Beeping noisily, the Robodog backed up then dashed off at its top speed to get away from the drenched Spot, who promptly followed it. The boys watched the dogs tearing back along the bank until they were out of sight.

'Doggie’s gone home to get his battery charged up, I think.’ Johnnie decided. 'I’ll have to go back and check.'

Having his birthday only three weeks after Christmas had always presented Johnnie’s parents with a problem deciding what gift to give him. But Johnnie could hardly wait to see what presents he would be getting this year, especially from his grandparents, who had only given him the tee shirt and socks for Christmas. On the breakfast table stood another large package. He opened it eagerly and to his great delight found it was the latest model Holobox IV, with three different games included. In addition, his grandparents had given him an envelope containing a voucher for the Hologame of the Month club, valid for a whole year. He scarped down his breakfast, and only an hour later was immersed in a three-dimensional fantasy world, battling hordes of weird and wonderful monsters. His parents could hardly drag him away from his new Holobox for lunch. Jimmy came around in the afternoon and joined in the second part of the first game, as an opposing warlord.

Later the following day, while Johnnie’s mother was clearing up his room for him, she picked up Doggie and placed him, sitting up, on the highest shelf of the largest toy cupboard. She closed the transparent glass door and left the Robodog, still in standby mode, staring out and up at the ceiling. After a while, an oily tear began to trickle down its cheek, as it scanned again the recorded last statement it had heard its little master speak the night before, and now stored forever in its primitive, but semi-intelligent, brain.

'See! A pet Robodog CAN only be for Christmas!'

Later the following year, Johnnie’s mother decided, it was time again, to turn out all her son’s unwanted toys. She took Doggie down from the shelf and regarded it thoughtfully, for a few moments. On a sudden impulse, she bent down and switched it on. Nothing happened. She decided its battery must have run down, and there was not enough charge left, to activate it and go to an electric socket by itself. She tucked it under one arm and went downstairs to the kitchen, where she plugged the end of its short tail into a convenient wall-socket. Its eyes lit up immediately, but faintly, indicating that charging was in progress; satisfied, she went back upstairs to finish checking Robbie’s toys over.

A few busy hours later, she heard a knock at the front door, and went down to see who was calling. It was an old man, shabbily dressed. He indicated a rickety old electric cart, parked outside, and gave her a feeble smile. 'Do you have any old things you don’t need any more. It’s for a good cause.'

She hesitated for a moment, feeling somewhat annoyed at the interruption, and then replied. 'No, I’m afraid not. Anything we have is going to the big local charity sale that’s on next week.'

'Not even an old toy, something for Tim, my little grandson there?'

The old man pointed to the cart again, took a deep breath and let out a short wheezy whistle. A young boy raised his head from the passenger seat, then waved and whistled back to him.

'What is it Grandpa?' he called, and was then amazed to see a small dog come bounding out of the doorway, between the old man’s legs, and rushing towards him. It leapt over the low garden wall, sprang up into the cart, and into his open arms. Barking softly, it opened its mouth, and a soft plastic tongue emerged. It began licking the boy’s face, and wagging its stubby tail, enthusiastically.

'Oh, thank you, lady!' the boy shouted. 'A little dog is what I’ve always wanted.'

Robbie’s mother shrugged, accepting the inevitable. 'Well why not?' she thought, feeling good with herself. 'After all, it’ll soon be Christmas, and the boy looks so happy.'

She took the old man’s hand, and exclaimed, 'Wait a moment, I’ll go and fetch the handbook, I’m sure you’ll need it.'

Now for a closer look into those famous Laws of Robotics, and how an intelligent machine using them might be exploited.