Originally published in Artbyte, March-April 2000, pp. 22-23.

Atomic Dogs

Steven Shaviro

Dogs are a part of human technology. They belong to culture, ratherthan nature. Their very existence is a triumph of engineering. Archaeologicalevidence indicates that dogs were tamed at least 14.000 years ago; theexamination of canine mitochondrial DNA suggests perhaps as long as 100.000years ago. In any case, at some point, human beings captured members ofthe wolf species and trained and bred them to create the domestic dog."Man's best friend" has been an integral part of human societyever since, a companion in our work and leisure. As cultures and technologieshave changed, dogs have changed right along with them. What new twistsmight be in store for dogs, given our current development of digital andgenetic technologies?

Artist and theorist Eduardo Kac suggests one possible answer. Kac proposeswhat he calls "transgenic art'. He wishes to create a phosphorescentdog through genetic manipulation. Green Florescent Protein (GFP) is a bioluminescentsubstance found in a jellyfish of the Pacific Northwest. Scientists haveisolated the gene sequence that codes for GFP and inserted it into theembryos of frogs and mice. Kac wants to take the process a step further,by adding the GFP sequence to the canine genome. The process is feasibleand harmless to the dog. The main difficulty is figuring out how to "turnon" the DNA sequence properly, so that it expresses itself via GFPin the dog's fur. The result of Kac's project would be GFP-K9: a new breedof dog that literally glows in the dark. Kac proposes to create such adog, adopt it, and live with it as a "family member."

Kac met with a largely hostile response when he proposed this projectat the Ars Electronica conference in Austria last September. But he pointsout that his idea resembles what dog breeders have been doing for severalcenturies. Some dog breeds are entirely functional, but many more havebeen created largely for aesthetic reasons. The only novelty in Kac's project,really, is that he proposes to modify the dog genome directly, whereastraditional breeding affects it indirectly, through the phenotype.

Also, Kac is an ethically responsible breeder. He will use a gene sequencethe effects of which are benign and already known, instead of relying uponthe peril of chance mutations. Many currently existing breeds have paidthe price for their distinctive size or shape, in the form of severe healthproblems and diminished life expectancy; this will not be the case withGFP-K9. Kac also gives a very different sort of justification. He notesthat the idea of the chimera, or the cross-species hybrid, has been "partof our imaginary for millennia. A profound cultural transformation takesplace when chimeras leap from legend to life, from representation to reality."Viewed in this light, Kac's project is a magical, alchemical one, justifiedon the grounds of its symbolic efficacy.

These arguments might seem like special pleading, but that doesn't makethem any less valid. The real problem is that the idea of a glow-in-the-darkdog strikes many people as inherently ridiculous. Kac's proposal seemsarbitrary, fanciful, and devoid of use value. But that is precisely whatmakes it a work of art. Genetic engineering is here to stay, whether welike it or not. It has already reshaped our world and will continue todo so. Kac knows that simply objecting to this technology is futile. Heseeks, rather, to use it differently. This means diverting it from itsaccustomed channels. Kac removes genetic engineering from the corporaterealm and places it, instead, in an aesthetic and domestic context. Hestrips away its utilitarian rationale. The project offers us a rare glimpseof a pleasingly gratuitous and convivial use of technology.

Another futuristic canine under development is AIBO, a Sony productnot of genetic engineering but of state-of-the-art software and hardwaredesign. AIBO is an autonomous "entertainment robot": a digitalsimulation of a dog. It is small, about the size of the tiniest toy dogbreeds. It comes in three colors: metallic silver, metallic black, or grey-silver.

AIBO has the general shape of a dog: a head complete with a snout, floppyears, and LED sits for eyes a compact body with four legs, and a tail thatactually wags. It walks with a doglike waddle, and shakes and cocks itshead like a dog. It can play with a ball by kicking it. It even lifts itsleg from time to time to pee like a male dog (fortunately no liquid actuallycomes out.). All in all, AIBO is undeniably cool, in the way Japanese entertainmentproducts often are. Its price is quite steep $2,500. But Sony has had noproblem selling all 15,000 of the units manufactured so far.

What really sets AIBO apart from other robot toys is the relative complexityof its behavior. It modifies its conduct in response to the outside world.Its actions are independent enough that it seems more than just a projectionof its owner's will. AIBO displays "six different emotional states:joy, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and discontent." It shows thesefeelings by flashing its eyes green (for joy) or red (for anger) of a patterncombining both colors (for the other emotions). It also plays little electronicditties to express its moods. AIBO has the senses of sight , hearing, andtouch. It sees its surroundings with a video camera in its head. It tendsto be attracted to bright colors, and it shows a degree of object recognition.It hears and obeys commands delivered in the form of musical tones.

An you can reward your AIBO by patting its head, or punish it by deliveringa quick slap. Such positive and negative reinforcement affect AIBO's futurebehavior. Out of the box, AIBO is a puppy. It gradually matures throughinteraction with its owner. As it grows up, its behavior gradually becomesmore coordinated and complex. Different adult AIBO's have different personalities,depending upon the details of their upbringing.

The big question about AIBO, of course, is the one that haunts all discussionsof Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life. To what extent is AIBOreally "alive"? Does it truly exhibit intelligent behavior? Ordoes it just simulate such behavior? Or does the distinction simply notmake sense any longer? Suspect that there is no right answer to these questions.It is all in the eye of the beholder. Most of the AIBO owners I've heardfrom have become strongly attached to their robot pets. (Many have purchasedmore than one.) And they all see clear differences in temperament and behaviorbetween one AIBO and another. To this extent, AIBO has passed the canineequivalent of the Tuning Test: The people who know it best are able andwilling to accept it as they do a flesh-and-blood dog.

But the AIBO owners also know how profoundly their silicon-based petsdiffer from the traditional carbon-based ones. AIBO'S range of action remainsfor more limited than that of a "real" dog. This may only bea temporary problem. Sony promises to incorporate more complex behaviorslike the ability to recognize and respond differently to particular humanbeings and others of its own kind. But other differences are more fundamental.You can reboot an AIBO when it's having problems. You can turn it off completely.If an AIBO's training goes wrong, you can wipe its memory clean and restartit as a puppy. Some owners have even been hacking AIBO's operating system.In all these ways, AIBO is more malleable and controllable than the biologicaldog.

Both GFP-K9 and AIBO are frontier beings: creatures of possibility andspeculation. They are less important in themselves, perhaps, than as harbingersof the future. And yet, for all their strangeness, they are part of a technologyand an ongoing connection that dates back beyond the start of recordedhistory. Humanity continues to renegociate its relationship with its canineother. In the words of George Clinton, "It's nothin' but the dog inme."

Steven Shaviro is Professor of English at the University of Washington,Seattle. His books include Doom Patrols: a theoretical fiction aboutpostmodernism (1997), and The Cinematic Body (1993).

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