Is electronic puppy love real?

February 22, 2001 12:43 PM

Is electronic puppy love real? Many Aibo owners are as attached to the robotic dogs as they would be to live animals.

"I always thought I was pretty rational but I don't think of her as a toy any more.... She's like a part of the family."
posted by phichens (27 comments total)

That's absolutely, positively SICK. I want to barf!
posted by tiaka at 1:05 PM on February 22, 2001

Hey, at least they don't kill people, or leave crap all over public places, or any of that.
posted by dagnyscott at 1:35 PM on February 22, 2001

Hey, at least they don't kill people

How long before white-supremacist gang members start reprogramming them to do just that?!
posted by cell divide at 1:41 PM on February 22, 2001

"woof, woof! Hello, my name is Rags!"
posted by plinth at 1:47 PM on February 22, 2001

said a 36-year-old mother of two, about her Aibo, Smidgen. "She's like part of the family.... It's so strange. You become attached"

Someone needs to buy this woman a vibrator.

Or maybe these dogs should come with built-in peanut butter sensors?
posted by bondcliff at 2:03 PM on February 22, 2001

A little odd? Yes. Sick? No. I can't see anything inherently wrong with substituting an AIBO for a real dog. True, it's not the same thing and I don't think it can supply the same companionship, but this could be a neat solution for animal lovers with allergies and such.
posted by tomorama at 2:16 PM on February 22, 2001

Yeah, a real neat, nerdy, emotionally stunted solution.
posted by sonofsamiam at 2:18 PM on February 22, 2001

"I always thought I was pretty rational but I don't think of her as a toy any more.... She's like a part of the family."

How is that any less rational than people who consider their pet birds or fish or snakes part of the family? The robot dog is probably capable of far more sophisticated interactions and relationships. I've never dealt with one, but I get the impression it's a lot better pet than a real dog, anyway.

Man, dogs suck.

;)
posted by daveadams at 2:43 PM on February 22, 2001

Wow, such negative posts.

I've never seen one, and they seem pretty silly to me, but I'd like to see one in action -- I'm willing to be convinced.

I'm getting tired of people who don't seem to be able to suspend disbelief long enough to try to accept something different.
posted by jragon at 3:05 PM on February 22, 2001

Wow, such negative posts.

I've never seen one, and they seem pretty silly to me, but I'd like to see one in action -- I'm willing to be convinced.

I'm getting tired of people who don't seem to be able to suspend disbelief long enough to try to accept something different.
posted by jragon at 3:05 PM on February 22, 2001

My bad. Sorry.
posted by jragon at 3:05 PM on February 22, 2001

Yeah, a real neat, nerdy, emotionally stunted solution.

You say that almost like you think there's something wrong with that.

Hey, pets are already just surrogate kids. Why not have a surrogate for the surrogate?

This is most interesting to me because it tells us a lot about the human mind. These people who have bonded with thei AIBOs aren't idiots or anything, they are just intuitively responding to the robot the way they respond to a real dog because the AIBO behaves so much like a real dog. Our "emotion recognizers" are deeply buried in our subconscious and are easily fooled by mechanical mimics, which is an interesting thing to know.
posted by kindall at 3:06 PM on February 22, 2001

People feel emotional about all kinds of inanimate objects. They talk to their cars and take loving care of them. People curse at their computers and suspect them of active malevolence. If people can sense personality in their vacuum cleaners, should it really be surprising to find it in a robot dog - especially when said robot was designed to be personable?

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 3:16 PM on February 22, 2001

The fact is, the rational differentiation between living and nonliving objects, and how to deal with our subsequent emotions is something that we as society HAVE to deal with. Point being, don't end up like this:

"But one day, when I couldn't get her to boot up, I was sick to my stomach. I thought my head was going to explode."
(quote from article)
posted by metasak at 4:38 PM on February 22, 2001

What would your prefer to come home to: this or this? Of course, I'm a little biased...
posted by owillis at 4:45 PM on February 22, 2001

I don't think they were arguing that people would *rather* have a robotic dog. They stressed that many people can't have the real thing for a variety of reasons -- allergies, not allowed in the apartment, a lot of time away from home, etc.

They also stress that you need to suspend disbelief -- this is not a robot trying to be just like a dog in every way. It's trying to be personable robot, and it's modeled after a dog.
posted by jragon at 5:05 PM on February 22, 2001

Which would you prefer to clean up after: this or this?
posted by kindall at 5:07 PM on February 22, 2001

Actually, I'm sure you'd all prefer this
posted by tiaka at 5:33 PM on February 22, 2001

I love these things. I've wanted to get one since the first generation came out, but they're a bit too pricey for me... :)

The reason I want one is pretty much the cool factor. I imagine though that if I got one I would probably get pretty attached to it. I don't want a real dog because it might bark at me while I'm sleeping, I have to go walk it, I have to clean up its s***, etc. The robot dog looks like a lot of fun minus the tedious work of taking care of a living animal.
posted by swank6 at 5:35 PM on February 22, 2001

hee hee, i'm with tiaka...
posted by dagnyscott at 7:26 PM on February 22, 2001

Yeah, I'm definitely a cat person myself as well.
posted by kindall at 9:46 PM on February 22, 2001

Here's another vote that the difference between excessive affection for non-humans, living or mechanical, is fairly negligible.
posted by rushmc at 10:55 PM on February 22, 2001

"But one day, when I couldn't get her to boot up, I was sick to my stomach. I thought my head was going to explode."
(quote from article)

Whilst such strong emotions might seem strange, who hasn't suffered as the result of the loss or theft of some keepsake or other that we have strong emotional attachments to?

Something I try not to do, since I rationalise that the loss of inanimate (um, stuff that isn't alive) things is not important in the scheme of things. But perfectly understandable.

Sometimes we try to dodge the big emotions, and end up being tripped up by little things, the things we weren't consciously guarding against. So, who knows what else these people are dealing with in their daily lives , with seemingly a great show of strength.
posted by lucien at 3:08 AM on February 23, 2001

Ermm.... Anyone ever read 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'?

I personally don't find this strange at all given how we all spend so much of our social time interacting with technology (watching TV, playing computer games, surfing the net etc etc) Here in the UK I see people who build complex relationships with and reliances on their mobile phones. Technology does fill voids in our lives and this is just one example of this...
posted by Mr Ed at 4:04 AM on February 23, 2001

Sound pretty neat though don't they?

GIMME!
posted by Mr Ed at 4:05 AM on February 23, 2001

OK, that was a little rude. But timely.
posted by dhartung at 2:24 PM on February 23, 2001

Bah, what real AIBO owner would name it AIBO. :)
posted by swank6 at 4:25 PM on February 23, 2001