Goochee Week 4 Discussion Post
Wowzers, week four’s readings have been the creepiest so far, by far. I am responding to the child near-future-robot scenario article.
I found the postulation that children will form moral and social relationships with their toys to be completely ridiculous, until they invoked the first example of the Tamagotchi, which I did love and interact with in a social and moral capacity! Scary.
I think the scariest part of the article was when they spoke of socializing the kids with AIBO and a real dog at the same time, and then asked the children questions about the qualities of each. The fact that over 60% of the children cited that “AIBO had mental states and sociality” is pretty terrifying.
The exploration of Robovie wasn’t as shocking to me because I imagine parents and society will step in before robots becomes enslaved to the child. In the words of the authors, the concept that the child “never needs to accommodate to the social interests and needs of the robot” seems like a really extravagant and expensive humanoid playmate that a child will never have. I see robot pets as a greater threat than humanoid robots because they simply seem more likely. I think society will be more careful in the dissemination and engagement with those humanoid robots, but who knows! It makes sense that Kurzweil is referenced in this piece.
