Autonomous non-violent agents -- protest bots who spread peace, not war

Everything is more fun with robots, even anti-war marches, and some Spanish activists who were inspired by the Pentagon's own efforts towards robot soldiers are planning on robot demonstrators for next year's G8 summit in Germany. La Fabricadecosasbonitas (The Factory of Pretty Things) has scored some funding to continue the project, and they should have a 20 member, remote-controlled, sign-weilding protest army ready for 2007.

[Via Robot Gossip]

[mosquito710 @ Jan 20th 2006 7:43AM]

I thought the point of a protest was to display the opinions of the protesters.

[warriorpear @ Jan 20th 2006 7:55AM]

awesome, if the robot protesters get violent the security forces can unleash the robot army... now that would be fun to watch.

WP

[Dave @ Jan 20th 2006 8:55AM]

At least they smell better than real hippies.

[Alex K. @ Jan 20th 2006 9:26AM]

i guess it's a neat idea for all the radical hippies out there, but robots don't possess the right to assemble, all these robots protesting could be confiscated for blocking public areas, or being illegal autonomous vehicles without a license from the DMV, depending on local/state laws.

[Chris @ Jan 20th 2006 9:36AM]

Just think, if a radical wanted to use peace robots, all he'd have to do is mod them with Flame Throwers and Gatlin gun. But, no one's gonna die because the police force will consist of robots too!

[Paul @ Jan 20th 2006 11:09AM]

Umm...

RIIIIIIIIIIGHT...

[TheChaz @ Jan 20th 2006 11:24AM]

No, the best plan would be to deploy the robot army secretly; undercover as the robot protesters. Then when enough of your enemy gather, you flip the switch, and they spring into attack mode! Muuaaaaahahahaha!

[mark smith @ Jan 20th 2006 11:52AM]

I loved Battlebots so much... This pending event has extreme potential.
Time to start buying a complete collection of frequency crystals, some video cameras, and a nice van with tinted windows....

[thispaceforsale @ Jan 20th 2006 12:16PM]

First of all, I am shocked by the callous attitutudes towards robot on robot violence insinuated not only by these preceding comments, but Engadget itself. Is this not a website dedicated to all things gadgety? It is one thing to talk about robots, but will these robots be marching in an anti-war protest because they really do not believe in war? Or will they be marching against their will? This moral quandry is right up there with folks who choose to rape their ipods by forcing porn onto the tiny screen when all the little fellow wants to do is rock out to U2. This is some serious metamisappropriation of artificial intelligence and- why is the robot wearing a jacket?

[Dave @ Jan 20th 2006 12:19PM]

Another advantage is security. The FBI will end up spying on the bot instead of on you.

[Xenophod @ Jan 20th 2006 12:59PM]

DON'T FEED THE TROLLS

[AH @ Jan 20th 2006 1:47PM]

I would think using robots instead of real people will help the opposition--the whole point of a protest is to get media attention and thereby rile people up enough to tick off (err... change) the governing body against which you are protesting.

Using robots will demonstrate that the people behind the protest don't really care enough to march themselves (or can't find enough real people to march with them). The protesters will be marginalized (like they should be in many cases... .001 percent of the population of a city marching should not cause change for the other 99.999 percent who don't care). We can then get on to more important news, like the moral dilemma over whether or not professors should use a red pen or a dark purple one when grading a test.

[Jared Dilg @ Jan 20th 2006 2:13PM]

Re:thispaceforsale, LOL!

If the little hipsters peddling Socialist Worker outside my work today were robots, I'd gladly push them over without a moment's hesitation. I say bring on the robots. Crowd dispersion would merely require water bottles instead of that nasty CS gas.

[Nathan @ Jan 23rd 2006 8:11PM]

You would think these cowards would welcome an idea to keep our troops safe by implementing robots to take over our most dangerous tasks, like defending freedoms. Kinda like the freedom of speech, allowing them to perform their ignorant protests.