The future is here, and it's the dystopian nightmare you feared it would be.
Authorities in Shanghai have deployed robot dogs with loudspeakers strapped to their backs to enforce the latest round of COVID lockdowns. A video out of the city shows a robot dog scuttling down a residential street barking out orders and reminding people to stay inside their homes.
The streets of the city, which has a population of over 26 million, are completely deserted.
Robot dogs have been used throughout Asian countries during the pandemic to enforce lockdown measures and social distancing.
A video out of South Korea showed a robot dog made by US-based Boston Dynamics fitted with a surveillance camera monitoring how busy Bishan-Ang Moh Kio Park was.
“It also carries a loudspeaker to broadcast social-distancing messages,” reported BBC News.
GlenOne of the creepiest and most dystopian things I've seen since the pandemic began: a terrifying camera-equipped remote-controlled robot patrols Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park in Singapore to -- for now -- warn about social distancing. Look at the fear.
Previously, we highlighted how the 'New Normal' that emerged in 2020 resembled a Dystopian nightmare often seen in film and literature. Most dystopian works present a world in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through one or more of the following types of controls:
Corporate control: One or more large corporations control society through products, advertising and/or the media.
Bureaucratic control: Society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy through a tangle of red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent government officials.
Technological control: Society is controlled by technology - through computers, robots or scientific means.
In the article we highlighted that from 2020 all three of these types have become a frightening reality.
