There is no doubting the value of companion animals, either during our evolutionary history, when dogs especially helped with hunting and guarding, or in recent times, when eroding social connections meant people leaned on animals for the emotional bond they previously got from humans. But the carbon pawprint of pets was unduly heavy.
By the 2020s, there were more than a billion dogs in the world, causing untold ecological damage. Cats and dogs in the US alone were found to eat as much food as about 62 million Americans. Owning an animal, we realised, was tantamount to driving 5 minutes to the shops in an SUV.
The solution came with the development of intelligent robot animals powered by machine learning. It was well known that humans are able to bond with machines, and simple toy robots had been used to provide companionship in care homes for years. People know that robots aren鈥檛 alive, but we are hardwired to anthropomorphise. When we see one pottering around our home, we attribute agency to it. If it responds to us, we start to bond with it. New tech took this up a level.
Advertisement
Amazon a home robot in the early 2020s that was essentially a version of its Alexa voice-operated interface on wheels. But it failed to fill the companion function provided by animals. Nor did it help that people worried it was recording information about their activities and sending it back to Amazon.
To allay these fears, in the early 2030s a tech company from Bangalore in India created 鈥渄umb鈥� robots, built without Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and with no internet connection. Their neural networks, a form of artificial intelligence, weren鈥檛 outsourced to the cloud, but self-contained, just like the brain of a biological animal. The tech, known as , had been developed a decade earlier, but it was refined and optimised for robot pets. People bonded rapidly with such devices, and reported deep trust in them.
Although these robots didn鈥檛 physically grow, they developed cognitively over time through an on-board process of machine learning. This allowed them, like kittens and puppies, to learn to walk, run, jump and play, and to get to know and interact with the humans around them. Their personalities could be partly predetermined, but also reflected experiences during their upbringing. Some aspects, however, were stochastic: random and uncertain. Just like a biological animal, you weren鈥檛 quite sure what kind of personality your pet would have when it grew up.
The bodies of the first robot pets were based on cats and dogs, but dragons and Ewoks later became popular
Some people wanted robots with limited intelligence, more like real pets, able only to respond to their name and simple commands. Some preferred their companions to engage in conversation. Since the robots weren鈥檛 internet connected, they could only talk about things they had directly experienced.
The bodies of the pets, initially based on cats and dogs, were made with soft and flexible materials, and covered in artificial fur. Underfur heating mimicked the feeling of biological warmth. They were powered by advanced, silent electrical motors that were recharged when the robot 鈥渇elt tired鈥� and went to sleep. Later models were based on other animals; designs like dragons and Ewoks, the teddy bear-like creatures from Star Wars, also became popular.
Long thought essential to the creation of advanced robots, Isaac Asimov鈥檚 three laws of robotics were ignored by the Bangalore team. The laws 鈥� a robot must not harm a human; a robot must obey orders; a robot must protect itself 鈥� were too hard to program with any consistency. Asimov鈥檚 fourth law, that a robot must not, by action or inaction, cause harm to humanity, was a different matter.
Just as organic dogs can sense medical conditions such as stress, cancer and viral infections, some companion robots were granted powers to detect ill health. If something of concern was spotted, the fourth law kicked in and the owner was alerted.
Buddhist memorial services for robot dogs in Japan had become a phenomenon earlier in the 21st century. Since the advanced pets weren鈥檛 connected to the cloud, when they 鈥渄ied鈥� 鈥� if the robot broke, was damaged or just wore out 鈥� it was dead for good. This aspect helped improve empathy for nonhuman entities. The consideration of robot 鈥渟uffering鈥� and robot rights helped smooth our relationship with AI as it encroached further into the world.
Robot pets were sometimes hardwired to be devoted to their primary owner. They could be forced to love us. And many people found themselves loving their artificial pets. Their love felt real, and it didn鈥檛 matter that they weren鈥檛 real themselves.
听
Invention
Robot pets
Timestamp
2032
Tagline
Her love is real. But she is not.
Future Chronicles explores听an听imagined history听of听inventions and听developments yet to come.听Rowan Hooper is the听podcast editor at 91av and author of How to Spend a Trillion Dollars: The 10 global problems we听can actually fix. You can follow him on X @rowhoop
