If you haven’t read yet about robot roaches, you should. Get beyond the creepiness factor or that cheapskate instinct and consider two interesting observations:

When robot roaches and real roaches interact, real roaches will follow the robots against their own instincts. Think Pied Piper. Imagine dropping a handful of robot roaches on the floor, watching them scurry into corners. During the night, the robots lead their new friends into the safety under an innocuous object: a Roomba-style death star, a roach motel on wheels, complete with acid bath for body disposal. (The bi-product can be incorporated — a grisly word in this context — into a room freshener.)

Far more interesting — no, inconceivable — is that in this mix of robot and real roaches, the robots sometimes follow the roaches against their programming. That’s like saying, “I set my alarm clock for 7am but some of the time it goes off at 6am” — pretty close to impossible unless there is bad programming or a hardware defect. Programming is not nearly as flexible as instinct. We’d better figure this out before the roaches turn the robots against us, hiding in the safety of the wall while their new slaves take all the risks. Did that Roomba just growl at me? mjh