Would you want a robot horse?

Given my week with IT I'd be spending the whole time turning it off and on again.

It would absolutely break down at the wrong moment and cost more to fix than even the Appy.
You wouldn't want to get bad habits either. Vet turns up to your real horse that's nqr & you say "have tried Alt/Contrl/delete but it doesn't seem to have worked! 🤣
 
As a child, me and my best mate built ‘crate horses’. Her mum made us hobby horses but stuffed the heads so they were 3D and we stacked beer crates and stuck the stick of the hobby horse down the front. We even made tails out of wool out the back and made stirrups out of rope and pipe that we threaded through the crates so we could actually do rising trot.

The pictures are amazing, I’ll try and dig them out!
 
no dual controls 😂

It will however have changeable skins!! Fancy a go on a sport horse? Fine! But tomorrow you have to hop on a gypsy vanner! It’s come back from the dry cleaners sparkling lol
 
No, as mentioned above if I wanted something that wasn't alive/didn't have its own personality and opinions I'd buy a motorbike.
I don't think it's possible to replicate the rapport with a real horse, nor teach anything artificial in the same way as a real animal.
I've ridden horses that I couldn't read before and no matter how beautifully schooled they are, it's alway a little alarming (IMO) to get up to any real speed on an animal when you can't get into their head.
 
Yes would be a brilliantly fun exercise machine - beat a treadmill every time

No vets bills

I would have a real horse as well but it would be great to have for when my horse is out of action
 
I'm not sure that people who are writing about wanting a real relationship are following advances in AI and robotics........
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No i'm not for sure, in my head a robot horse is like the ones you can have a lesson on noe and they tell you if you sitting straight and balanced etc.
I dont want a world with AI, i know its coming and i cant stop it but i dont want to embrace it
 
Ae we talking something that is fixed to the floor in a room or something that can literally go out for a hack round the roads? If it is the first, no, if it's the latter I'd be tempted. No costs other than purchase and maintenance is very appealing, as is the thought that anyone can ride it, and it won't hurl you into a hedge because one of the leaves on a tree is slightly different from the rest. Having said all that, a real horse gives an emotional connection that you just wouldn't get with an animatronic one.
 
No costs other than purchase and maintenance is very appealing, as is the thought that anyone can ride it, and it won't hurl you into a hedge because one of the leaves on a tree is slightly different from the rest.
My OH has a relationship with his Lambretta scooters, but the maintenance is quite on going and can be costly....and it has happily tipped him off and into a wall because of mud on the road 🤣😃🤣😄
 
So I was thinking about this thread and suddenly remembered a cartoon from my childhood with a Mechanoid horse called Thirty-Thirty. True he could be a bit gung ho and carried a gun everywhere, but he was able to switch between being a horse to being a half-horse-half-humanoid type thing that would mean he could keep his own stable clean. Or perhaps he was toilet trained? Oh and he could talk, which may or may not be a good thing ... 😅
 
After yesterday I now say yes! My new safe pony threw me as she wanted to go after my other pony who had taken off for no reason! She kept spinning till centrifugal force took over and I hit the ground and her black and white safe cob body scampered off into the distance! I had to walk home which is a miracle cos I can hardly move today.
 
Actually, how about more accessibility etc for the actual robot ones that already exist?
Pretty sure I'll need some help/straightening/ironing out bad habits before I back the baby horse in a while!
The old cob & I are rather well matched & wonky together....
 
There are people using AI versions of their dead loved ones to cope with their bereavement. I think a horse relationship is probably easier to fake.
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I'm not sure if it would be- from what I've heard of this (perhaps it's moved on) they were basically building chat bots for it, so it's all written communication. Someone's language/writing style is a lot easier to mimic than a living animal in the flesh in front of you, hence why we have the uncanny valley with humanoid robots- if they're almost but not quite right it sets people's teeth on edge.
So much of our communication with horses is unconscious, we read and use body language without thinking about it, so I think it would only have to be out by a tiny percentage- responding a fraction of a second too late or too soon, or giving a slightly unexpected response for it to set alarm bells ringing.
 
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