Soldiers Bond With Bots, Take Them Fishing

HarryCaul writes "Soldiers are finding themselves becoming more and more attached to their robotic helpers. During one test of a mine clearing robot, 'every time it found a mine, blew it up and lost a limb, it picked itself up and readjusted to move forward on its remaining legs, continuing to clear a path through the minefield.' The man in charge halted the test, though - 'He 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.' Sometimes the soldiers even take their metallic companions fishing. Is there more sympathy for Robot Rights than previously suspected?"

Comments

robot's rights?

[zappepcs]

Wow, if these guys has spent a little more time pulling the wings off of flies when they were kids, they might not be so prone to anthropomorphizing a machine. The quality of mankind to find feelings for things that really shouldn't be given any is truly amazing, but perhaps this best explains some sports fans ability to watch their team lose year after year.

I'm pretty sure that they don't have feelings for a floor jack, or won't until it can move on its own. Now is the time for people to think about and begin establishing 'rights' for machines... WTF?

While on bots...

[packetmon]

I show my irc grouphug bot compassion all the time

<rwxr--r--> grouphug!
<rwxr--r-->when i was little i used to poop behind a tree in my backyard.

Nice little bot...