# It's ROBORAT! What should we do with it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 2, 2002, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-roborat-what-should-we-do-with-it/106796 "2002-05-02T04:38:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-roborat-what-should-we-do-with-it/106796/1 "2002-05-02T04:38:20Z")
Yes, an [actual, living rat](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18261-2002May1.html) operated by remote control. Looks wireless to me. Ideal pet for Christopher Reeve? Abomination to be destroyed? Lifesaving pioneer? Do you want a robopet? Technology offshoots: it stays “neutral” in your pet, which has a GPS linked “Pet Palm” embedded in it’s collar. If it strays too far, the GPS orders it home, along a “pet friendly route”. Hell, make it stop at the PDQ, call the clerk over the cell phone in the Pet Palm in the collar with a valid credit card number, and have it haul a cart home! With GPS, you don’t even have to teach it to find the liquor store the first time. Am I evil? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-roborat-what-should-we-do-with-it/106796/2 "2002-05-02T04:42:48Z")
BTW, where you live, is it illegal to sell liquor to a rat? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-roborat-what-should-we-do-with-it/106796/3 "2002-05-02T05:05:22Z")
_The Terminator_ meets _Ben_ ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-roborat-what-should-we-do-with-it/106796/4 "2002-05-02T05:27:40Z")
Duuuuuude. This is **so** a super-villain nightmare waiting to happen. Can’t you just see a mysterious figure rising from the sewers, bringing with him the power to control every rat in the city? “Go, my children,” he’d hiss, his nose twitching. “Go and bring terror to the people! I’ll hold this city hostage until they meet my demands! Then we’ll see who’s the outcast! The pariah!” In fact, I think his name would be the Pariah. He’d raise his misshapen, clawed hands to the purple sky and laugh as a greasy rain fell on his features and his HORDE OF RABID ROBORATS. This is so not good! By the way, how did you plan on dealing with my radio-controlled mugger-rat I have stationed outside the PDQ that swipes single-malt scotch and tequila? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ElwoodCuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/edb3f5/32.png) [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-roborat-what-should-we-do-with-it/106796/5 "2002-05-02T06:41:11Z")
I read about this on Fark today. I am all for animal research that can help people, but I fail to see the point of this. ---
**Author:** ![Ace\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Ace\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace_Face)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-roborat-what-should-we-do-with-it/106796/6 "2002-05-02T06:48:05Z")
Very interesting. The halloween possibilities are endless… ---
**Author:** ![JustPlainBryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JustPlainBryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustPlainBryan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-roborat-what-should-we-do-with-it/106796/7 "2002-05-02T15:04:08Z")
I’m waiting for my remote-controlled monkey butler! ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-roborat-what-should-we-do-with-it/106796/8 "2002-05-02T15:49:10Z")
> [@](#): > > I fail to see the point of this. Much basic research looks pointless, but yields big dividends down the road a ways (and much does not, to be fair). Potentially, this may have some impact on restoring control to the limbs of paraplegics / quadraplegics (If we can get signals _in_, signals _out_ are the next step). Sensation also might be restored. That, of course, bring up the question of what happens if your local paraplegic gets hacked? I’ve got images of some poor guy walking down the street, yelling: Help me! My legs are out of control! If we can get sensation signals out, and back in again, virtual porn becomes a real possibility (C’mon! _Tell_ me some enterprising soul won’t try this!). ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-roborat-what-should-we-do-with-it/106796/9 "2002-05-02T16:42:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ElwoodCuse \* > \*\*I read about this on Fark today. I am all for animal research that can help people, but I fail to see the point of this. \*\* One of the uses I read about was mounting a camera on it and using it to search for survivors in a disaster siutation ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-roborat-what-should-we-do-with-it/106796/10 "2002-05-02T22:39:22Z")
My first suggestion, here at the office, was that we should mount some guns on 'em. _Think of the DeathMatch opportunities!_ [SUB]What? Why are you all looking at me like that?[/SUB] ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-roborat-what-should-we-do-with-it/106796/11 "2002-05-02T23:49:28Z")
With teeny enough cameras, we could vicariously experience being eaten by a cat. Hell, it already looks small enough to get an AWESOME “stomped by a boot” camera angle. The will be a horrendous glut of “Babe” and “Stuart Little” knockoffs. In a stunning episode of Life Imitates Art, a string of banks will be ripped off by a tight knit unit of Daring Dobermans. Ditto with monkey butlers. Street dealers will be mostly Rottweilers. OJ will revise his theory of who killed Nicole, “trained knife wielding monkeys”. Sloths and snails will be punished unmercifully for “dawdling”. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2002, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-roborat-what-should-we-do-with-it/106796/12 "2002-05-03T00:22:22Z")
Remote gerbiling. :eek: [sub]First thing that came to mind. Yes, I know I’m twisted, thanks.[/sub]