For centuries dogs have played a vital role on farms across the world working with livestock, guarding properties, and in many cases simply acting as companions for farmers often working in rural isolation. However, fast...
    • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
      31·
      6 days ago

      This is the most important question. The context of Hawaii cannot be ignored when talking about agriculture, it is inherently charged with politics.

      The second most important question is how the hell did we reduce the collective intelligence of our society to think that we could beat dogs at being dogs?

      longer point on this

      I can see a robot dog being useful for walking into a radioactive waste zone or trying to defuse a bomb, sure… I am fascinated by cool uses of unmanned vehicles I run a fediverse community about them because I enjoy learning about it so much…

      …but replacing a farm dog with a robot dog is probably one of the most naive things I can possibly think of trying to do. Why? If you can’t figure out a way to use dogs to do this I think that says more about you than it says about dogs… have you ever watched skilled sheep herding dogs???

      https://caherconnell.com/sheepdog-demonstrations/

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tUMxcaCym0

      It is the height of techbro ignorance to look at a Border Collie and think “yeah I can design a better robot version of that”… like… what??

      For the record, so long as you treat the dogs reasonably, dogs love this kind of thing, it is what they live for.

      https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12042896/

      Herding dogs exhibit a distinct constellation of behaviors marked by inherent instinct and motor skills that manipulate and guide livestock in response to instructive commands and cues. Comparison of the whole-genome sequences of herding and nonherding breeds reveals signatures of positive selection associated with pathways underlying social interaction and cognitive functions. Of the strong selective sweep signals, haplotypes within ephrin type-B receptor 1 (EPHB1), which is linked to locomotor hyperactivity and spatial memory, show evidence of segregation within breed lineages for the conformation versus working lines of border collies and introgression with a genetically and geographically distant herding breed of Entlebucher mountain dogs. We show that a working line–specific haplotype of EPHB1 is associated with elevated levels of chase-bite motor patterns based on a well-validated behavior survey. These findings indicate that functional selection has shaped the genetic architecture of herding breeds, which may relate to their proficiency in addressing diverse tasks and challenges in maintaining control over the herd.

      We literally genetically engineered dogs to enjoy herding and chasing behaviors, why are we just throwing that in the trash? Why not focus on making a robot/smart infrastructure that helps take care of dogs in a humane way with less human crews?

      Ughhh this is a perfect example of why techbros are so insufferable. They can only see what they understand as the future.

      I mean I guess it is also a product of how much we love dogs, their use in war is extensive but far more limited than it would be if we were more comfortable as an international community with media about violence against dogs (big generalization I know). In other words, we use robot dogs for war not because robot dogs are superior to dogs but because using dogs for war is a mass wave style is similarly repulsive to people as using human soldiers that way (though it still happens). As a result we assume that in civil contexts that robot dogs useful in war are going to be wayyyy more advanced than what civilians have access too… but a civilian can adopt a border collie and have a way more advanced “machine” than any technology company can hope to build.

      I think there is far more of a future in UAVs that keep a tally on farm dogs so humans can make sure the dogs are safe than there is for robot dogs straight up replacing dogs… but I think it might take awhile for people to realize that who aren’t people using dogs to get work done every day.

      Watch some random videos of the Iditarod Dog Sled Race and watch the behavior of the dogs. These are animals that just finished a 1,510 km race… do they look alive or beaten down?

      https://iditarod.com/videos/featured/

      Humans aren’t going to be able to make a superior robot dog to an actual dog for a very long time.

      TL;DR Don’t try to beat Dogs at being Dogs with Robots, make Dogs more useful with Robot Helpers. Dogs are already extremely advanced and institutional groups of humans can reasonably care for a dog and tell when it is being seriously neglected or mistreated.

    • pulsewidth@lemmy.world
      51·
      6 days ago

      Well, until that arrives, a Paintball marker to take out its video/IR sensors and you’re good to approach it with a net / clubs / jerry can of destructive fluid of your choice.

      • Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
        5·
        6 days ago

        A .22 with low velocity bullets would be quiet enough to be unnoticed. Lenses can be treated with hydrophobic coatings to shed paint. A bullet to the camera or battery area would be much more expensive to fix.