You can now buy a flame-throwing robot dog for under $10,000
Thermonator, the first "flamethrower-wielding robot dog," is completely legal in 48 US states.
Also: Which 2 states are the sane ones where this would be illegal?
Edit: California and Maryland. And you can have one in California, if you get a special permit.
Because. Also, flamethrower aren't considered weapons by the government, so the only states that limits you from buying one is California and Ohio and Maryland banned them.
California allows roofers to have flamethrowers. They use them for curing something in the roofing tiles(? I don't know the proper term for those things. They're basically cardboard covered in tar and gravel, possibly a thin layer of asphalt?).
It was a bit unnerving the first few times I heard the roofers doing their thing.
But... why?
Screw those states, flamethrowers are awesome and I want to see more of them.
Because, Awesome!
Well now I'm definitely going to have to save up $10,000 for a flame-throwing robot dog.
How else am I going to protect myself from all the flame-throwing robot dogs?
You gotta fight fire with fire
Neat.
What possible use case is there for this that isn't a felony of some description?
Employees trying to unionize.
At least it seems like that sort of thing never ends up being a felony...
Seems perfect for mole problems.
Now that's how you kill all the gophers
How else am I gonna light the fireplace without getting up from the couch?
Rapid heating of slabs of meat for some weird meat effect rich people pay for
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butane_torch
Culinary
Butane torches are frequently employed as kitchen gadgets to caramelize sugar in cooking, such as when making crème brûlée. They may be marketed as kitchen torches, cooking torches, or culinary torches. Use of the butane torch in the kitchen is not limited to caramelizing sugar; it can be used to melt or brown toppings on casseroles or soups, to melt cheese, and to roast or char vegetables such as peppers.
Roofing
throw flames at your enemies from your roof
I hate having to carry around a .5g firelight, this will save me the immense difficulty.
Kudzu abatement.
Dear ladies and gentleman of the jury. I will now argue that the LLM that programmed the fire breathing dog, did so in such a manner as to make it sentient. The dog was able to and did act of it's own accord when it killed the woman, Ms Smith. The defendant here did not create sentience in the dog, nor could he have known turning the dog on, outside, may result in the fire breathing dog torch a bystander to death.
You can see here, the dogs walking and urination patterns closely align with a real, organic dog. This definitively proves that the dog killed the woman, and now the defendant, who only released the dog into nature. Thank you very much.
That's a legit point under common law. The owner or keeper of a wild animal is generally strictly liable for damage caused by the animal, except if the animal is local fauna, in which case liability terminates on the animal's escape back into the wild. I don't know of any place with native flame throwing robots.
"The Mechanical Hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner of the firehouse"
Here we go...
Why do people keep reading dystopias as instruction books?
Your guess is as good as mine. Let's just hope that they didn't also see any copies of The Limits to Growth as well. It was a scientific report published in 1972 by a think-tank. Using computer models developed at MIT, the authors warned that continuing on business-as-usual population and consumption growth trajectories would likely lead to societal collapse within the next 100 years.
I don't know about you but I'm excited!
Now that's one hell of a 'hot dog'.
I hate this but it's hilarious. It's a microcosm of everything that's making me depressed right now, and somehow that's precisely why it's amazing.
Lying on my bed, my new dog will keep me warm on cool winter nights.
According to the FAQ on the flamethrower, while the unit is apparently pretty flexible in fuel that it can handle, the recommended fuel is mostly diesel. I'd imagine that one could use biodiesel and do climate-friendly heating.
And you could roast marshmallows in bed!
This is a great day! I think we can ALL agree that it's been deeply frustrating to be priced out of the flame throwing robot dog market for so long.
This is an absolute W for flamethrowing robot dog enthusiasts everywhere.
You were paying the market rate for your flamethrowing robot dog? Dude, buy refurbished.
Israeli Military have entered the chat.
Imagine telling your insurance about your newest purchase.
They'll probably ask for a referral, it's legal in 48 states.
So how much for a shark with a frickin' laser beam attached to its head?
I'd settle for some ill-tempered sea bass.
Totally replacing my snowblower with one of these
Fire-extinguisher robot dogs in 3, 2, ...
Yeah, no. Saving people sounds like a waste of money. How can we monetize saving them? Their deaths are way more lucrative.
They already have Spot dogs that can do fire supression. But they need the mechanical arm that the newer revisions introduced.
That was the excuse dog to make this dog possible. Please pay attention when safety robots are announced.
Great. Which country has your bet for the first country to sic these on their enemies?
Well, that answers that question.
At last, a way to commit genocide without dirtying your hands. Combine that with their AI modelling of attack vict... targets, and they'll just have a 24/7 roaming robot kill squad.
Even less money for a real dog and flame-thrower....
Yeah, but controls are... unreliable.
Training tends to fall out the window when Lacy sees the flames spewing from her backpack.
Anyone able to loan me under $10,000? It's for something really cool.
Give me $5K and a case of beer and I'll make you a dog suit that breathes fire.
You always get a better bang for your buck investing in furries.
$7.5K if you want safety standards, though.
Cool? Not hot?
I just want one that delivers a beer and a hunk of summer sausage.
But a flamethrower? I guess...sure?
burns down house during summer sausage delivery
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
What about one that pisses beer?
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Well, you're in luck! They're already testing those out in Los Angeles: https://www.serverobotics.com/uber-eats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9MJorTjpxU
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=n9MJorTjpxU
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I think I made one of those in the new Zelda game
Dudes rock
Sorry mortgage deposit, something else has come up
Thankfully your new purchase is fully able to "deal with" the bank
Deus Ex intensifies.
SCANNING AREA
Whatever happened to all the people that bought the Boring Company flamethrower?
They'd be a good customer base for this, but strangely I never hear how they're getting on now
Considering it was a Musk product, it probably fell apart in their hands the first time they tried to pull the trigger. If it didn't explode in their faces.
Were you expecting weekly updates?
I was at least expecting them to be publicly humiliated
I need it for personal protection.
It's my "emotional support dog".
Can I just get a robot dog armed with a super soaker? That would be hilarious.
Now if i just had an extra 10k lying around collecting dust..
HANS! Bring ze Flemmenwerfherhund!
The whole article listing the various uses of flamethrowers, like environmental conservation, then mentioning concerns that flamethrowers can double as weapons is just... I don't even know what to do with that.
it even lists napalm as an intended use. gonna conserve the hell out of that commie rainforest, I guess?
The thing is we on paper didn’t use incindiaries in Vietnam as anti personnel weapons, it was to torch the rainforest and deoxygenate tunnels. Now in practice we all know that flamethrowers were used on homes and have seen the pictures of the children with Napalm burns. But yeah this line of argument is nothing new.
I, for one, welcome our new overlords.
I have $10k and a list.
suprised this wasn't elon musk
You might be obligated to call it a "hell-hound", though...
“Oh shit, heck hounds!”
My person!
I'm holding out for a fully-autonomous flamethrower robotic monkey.
Completely useless for firefighting. Putting a drip torch on its ass and letting it walk a line, maybe. But it's not going to cut down the trees to make a firebreak, who what's the point.
It's for fighting on the side of fire
When we said give the people what they want, we got this, and we do.
A lot of wildfires aren't in areas with trees, brush fires are incredibly dangerous too. Source: I live in an area with brush fires.
thanks i needed this
Can I use it to light up my noisy neighbor house?
Yes. Legally? Probably not
Will let the lawyers decide that, point is it would work.
No problem, I will left the robot to burn there too, no traces.. perfect plan.. I just need to spend 10k to get rid of that noisy MF..
I'd imagine that it'd depend upon the materials from which the house is constructed.
Most houses have burnable stuff inside, even if the exterior is brick or something.
I want it.
Fungal towers not gonna like it
IIRC, fire kills fungal beds effectively but doesn't actually take out the fungal tentacles.
I generally treat discretion as the better part of valor and get out of Dodge if fungus is present.
Exodii spotted, p.s deathmobile with lazer turrets and solar panels gonna do the job tho, just sprinkle some molotovs beforehand
This is the best summary I could come up with:
If you've been wondering when you'll be able to order the flame-throwing robot that Ohio-based Throwflame first announced last summer, that day has finally arrived.
It features a one-hour battery, a 30-foot flame-throwing range, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity for remote control through a smartphone.
It also includes a LIDAR sensor for mapping and obstacle avoidance, laser sighting, and first-person view (FPV) navigation through an onboard camera.
The company lists possible applications of the new robot as "wildfire control and prevention," "agricultural management," "ecological conservation," "snow and ice removal," and "entertainment and SFX."
Back in 2018, Elon Musk made the news for offering an official Boring Company flamethrower that reportedly sold 10,000 units in 48 hours.
Even so, to state the obvious, flamethrowers can easily burn both things and people, starting fires and wreaking havoc if not used safely.
The original article contains 286 words, the summary contains 139 words. Saved 51%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Cool like in Mona Lisa Overdrive. All I need to do now is to get a few and move into an abandoned factory in South Jersey until the Yakuza hire me to look after an AI for them.
I'll take "good ideas" for 1000.
Agricultural management that is, torching ant hives and wasp nests, are the most common civilian purpose for flamethrowers. And given I'm allergic to some kinds of stings, I'd be glad for a robot dog to manage my wasps for me.
But I don't have a farm, nor $10K to spend on a dogbot.
nor $10K to spend on a dogbot.
We can hope that someone with an entreprenurial spirit will start up a business renting flamethrower robo-dogs for people who only need them sporadically.
The question is, at that price can you really afford not to?
Hmmm. Don't tell Vedal.
Nah, DO tell Vedal and start a gofundme so he can put Evil Neuro inside.
lol wat. why?
Flamethrower robot dog, pay attention.
I have a piece of bologna, lighter, hairspray, duct tape, and a city full of strays.
Strapping a can of hairspray to a stray and lighting it: Priceless
Animal torture sure makes you seems cool.
