1 Yup, I never would've guessed that.

2 I wonder if people call him "Dr. Bobo" behind his back?

3 Not more'n once, I'll wager.

4 Also, I wonder how long the author's been holding that secret.

5 Remember when Florence mentioned that the early experiments on making smarter chimps were abandoned because the chimps couldn't relate to human feelings?  And how mayor commented that she'd met Dr. Bowman, and just didn't trust him?

And who could forget all the freak "coincidences" involving the robot factories crashing into the ocean, catching fire, etc. so that only robots that used a variant of Bowman's brain design could be built?

The human colonists isolated Dr. Bowman in a Polar prison, in a building with no handle on the inside of the door, and his guards clearly fear what he's capable of.  They even installed a firewall on the coffee maker, but it still wasn't enough to keep Bowman in check.

I'm beginning to think that the "good Doctor" is actually a mad-scientist super-villain!

6 He is a male chimp.

These have certain well known tendencies when dealing with normal human body language.

We've seen enough of Florence to know that she is still a wolf.

Chandler rule seven: The solution must seem inevitable once revealed.

Late last night I saw Dr. Bowman, complete with sun glasses to help with eye contact, and thought 'Of freaking course'.

I had noted about all the jailers wearing visors, and I just now realized the purpose. 

The distrust could be chalked up to a simple racism cognate, or that he has probably ripped off someone's face before.  I think the latter is most correct.

Of course they want to limit his contact with human society. He may not be safe around children. Of course his jailers view her and the robots through his lens.

People who can be engineers are capable, and the scientific and engineering training only makes them more so.

Florence is an engineer who is a credit to the profession.

This is an important part of her story, even if Bowman isn't a super villain.

7 Those visors are computer interfaces. Mr. Raibert wears one, too, and he doesn't have access to Dr. Bowman.

8 Yes, I saw them using them for that. I recall that Raibert's was a different model, that showed the eyes.

The question I had was why every single one of the guards wore one, and always wore one?

Raibert took his off to sleep.

Note that the guards who were asleep either wore them asleep, or put a really high priority on wearing them.

Yes, I think one reason is to always keep connected to the security system. I think another is that they are social PPE.

I think the guards are physically scared of Bowman. Three out of four are big sturdy guys. Chimps are strong, perhaps Bowman could still take them one on one.