Training your best friend: 
Eine Wesensprüfung

LEO MN2033 is an AI trained with shepherd dog data that is both a pet and a protector machine. Its task is to serve as a companion and protector in everyday life. Leo has been assigned to the category of working dog, which is subject to the strict and constantly monitored requirements of the German Electronic Shepherd Dog Association. The work examines in a humoristic way theco-evolutionary relationship between human and machine. How a co-evolution between human and machine behaves, is reflected of the historical background and future significance of a tank. Will the tank of the future have a completely different form? - And why do humans always need associations?
Domestication increasingly complements the co-evolution of humans and animals. The dog is a product of breeding intervention - a reflection of technology - and leads from a mutation of the human-dog relationship to a human-machine relationship. The technology of the electronic dog is virtually a logical continuation of the co-evolution of human and dog that has been going on for a long time.
For example, the German Shepherd ranks undisputedly at the top of the popularity scale of all purebred dogs worldwide. The breed has been bred according to plan since 1899. The idea of the founder of the Verein für Deutsche Schäferhunde, Max von Stephanitz, was to develop a powerful, safe and well-balanced dog with a high willingness to learn and adaptability. The original purpose of the German Shepherd Dog was as a herding dog. Instead, it is used as a service dog by the military, customs and police. In the private sector, the German Shepherd can be used in any dog sport and as a pure family dog.
In order to preserve the German Shepherd Dog, which is predisposed to high performance, as a working dog and to perfect it in terms of breeding, the breed standard of the German Shepherd Dog was established, which describes the physical condition and the character and temperament traits. For this purpose, the German shepherd dogs must pass a character test. The Latin word “canis” refers to both dogs and biting humans. So is it perhaps permissible to suspect in the dog’s biting fury and viciousness the secret biting fury and viciousness of its owner? A few years ago, the cultural philosopher Hartmut Böhme ventured the thesis: “When the pit bull jumps at us, it is man raging against man in the medium of the dog. Whereas in earlier stages of domestication it was his function as a guard, herding or hunting dog, today, in the urbanisation of the dog, other sides come to the fore. For example, a shift to more symbolic functions. The dog becomes a symbol of lifestyle. It becomes an animal of identification. Its breed and class reflectthose of its owner. One presents oneself, equips oneself, reacts “in” the dog. It is a means of ego expansion, says Böhme.If you train a tank as a working dog with dog training data and characteristic dog traits, you would have a perfect working dog that can not only cuddle, but would also be operational in combat. The tank would have a future as a liminal creature. Human would continue to master his basic motive of domestication - disciplining, controlling, conditioning, wanting to dispose of the animal, nature, breeding nature, technical nature - by reassigning the liminal creature to the genus shepherd dog.