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Robot Pets Almost as Good as Real Ones?
Gallamine writes "Many people claim that pets are good for their owners. But, what about robot pets? Some scientists at the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue's Veterinary school say yes, robot pets can benefit humans. Petting an AIBO caused the human stress hormone cortisol to decrease in patients, much like a real dog, although the effects weren't as pronounced. Also, AIBOs sent to nursing homes caused the residents to be less depressed and lonely. Similar research is being done by Dr. Dr. Takanori Shibata with his robotic seal named Pero."
A real dog is devoted to its master and euphoricly happy to see him/her.
A robot dog is a pile of parts running a program.
After all, look at how much comfort and companionship a child can get from a simple teddy bear. Same concept, your imagination will create a personality for your little friend if necessary.
why should this effect not be understandable? when we were kids, we had plush-friends that helped us e.g. falling asleep. now having a moving, mechanic sounding fluffy battery-powered friend, that only seems to express the ongoing of industrialisation / techdom.
i really don't wonder =)
No robot can ever replace my pet rock!
I wonder how much an electric sheep would cost...
Good point, I wonder how a non-intelligent psuedo-pet compares to a more intelligent model so far as the benefits on the human psyche. Anything we associate with comfort and stability I imagine would have a strong bond with how we react to them.
For example a favorite pair of jeans or any similar item. We're not even associating them with a living being but we still tend to personify them and cling to them as something we'd miss even if we replaced them with an identical item.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
And what happens when you give the patients brand new 60" LCD TVs instead? Is it really pets, or just the novelty of new toys?
A cool new thing might make sick and old people less bored. They are people after all. A new robot would make my day!
What happens when every institurion has its IBO? Will they be as interesting as a dog when the novelty runs out? I don't think so.
I'd really worry about a fleet of 'entertainment' robots looking after our sick and aged. Seems like a classic setting for a robot uprising story.
ls
Seriously, I love cats, but contrary to popular belief, they are the LEAST "spiritual" animals I know.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
I do understand that not all can have a real animal.. but.. for the rest of you, theres alot of loney pets in diffrent shelters around your country, why not save one? I did, and I cant understand how attached I got to the little one, his now a part of the family. Amazing experience as I never had any animals before, and they dont require alot of maintainance either.. easyer then keeping a flower alive, as pets complain when they need food/water.. :-)
of course robot pets will work, just like teddy bear works. And is much cheaper.
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#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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I once owned a drinking bird, but I can't say I noticed any health benefits from my robot pet.
I prefer plants instead as they are easy to care for and bring real health benefits.
Reduce, reuse, cycle
But there are some places where they can't live, such as nursing homes. So can a robot pet provoke the same reactions?
Not to nitpick, but this is not always true. I have an elderly relative in a nursing home, and the home itself has a canine companion. (However, I can see how it would be difficult/impossible for individual residents to have pets.)
Second, the effects of Animal Assisted Therapy are well known. It makes sense that a replicant (like the Aibo) that offers a subset of relevant canine functionality could offer a subset of the health benefits as well.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
in the future, sony's aibo will spy on it's owners for playing copied DVD's and CD's... it will then use it's wifi to connect to your access point and let it's evil master sony know what you are doing... but really, who has $2k to blow on some pice of crap, robosapien kicks ass anyday!
Excuses Are Like Assholes - Everybody's Got One
That's exactly what I would have called it. Yep...
Play with it long enough, and you get committed.
...by woody allen (in Sleeper)
"...and after you've moved into your permanent home, you'll enjoy mechanized servants. Until then, you can have a computerized dog."
[rags the robot dog, in computer voice] Woof. Woof. Woof. Hello, I'm Rags.
[woody allen] Is he housebroken, or will he be leaving little batteries all over the floor?
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it." -- Donald Knuth
I have yet to see a robot dog that can follow my kid down the stairs, eating every single potato chip he drops.
Why spend hundreds of dollars on a anthropomorphic toaster by Sony with a crap warranty when you can own a miracle of millions of years of evolution that will last up to 15 years for next to nothing?
They don't get sick, thus don't have vet fees amounting to hundreds a year (if not thousands). They don't pee, they don't shit. They don't cause lawsuits from the paper boy who just got his gonads chewed. And you can silent a yapping robot pet by taking out its batteries and not get the SPCA on your ass.
So hell yeah... robot pets are definitely better than those damn pesky biological ones!
Welley Corporation - SLM Scammers
How much stress relief is your robot pet going to give you when he gets the blue screen of death?
At one time, a toy store had a clearance sale on those Virtual Pets, those things with the little LCD screen you hang around your neck, and feed and take care of, for like $1 a piece. Cut little pixelated pandabear. I was like, whoa!, awesome bargain, I figured I could give them to little kids I saw and brighten their day. I bought 20 of them. Came with battery and everything, all you had to do was pull out a little piece of paper to make battery contact and the thing was off and running.
Let me tell you, those were the most ***!^@^#$^#$ annoying things in the world. Even though they had a clock built in, they had no concept of time. Would beep at you constantly, at random, 3 hours, here, there everywhere, all through the night. You wanted to smash the !@@##$$% hell out of them, and this was just with one running.
People are going to feel the same about robot pets. Like shut the @#$%%^ up, you piece of #$%%^^. Its absolutely a braindead idea. Geeks are such incredibly brilliant morons who are long short on common sense, and this is just another example.
Computers and people are a pain enough in this world. The less you have of both, the more stress free your life is. Notice how stressed out you get when your computer is not running absolutely optimal. Exactly. Or when friends are hitting you up to do something for them or bail them out of some bs? Get rid of them all.
Robot pets = more junk for the recycle bin
Robots that do useful but repetitive work over and over with zero maintenance or user input = golden
My microwave = a beautiful thing
My honda rebel motorbike, that cranks up everytime = a beautiful thing
An analog dial thermomenter on my wall, that always words and needs no batteries = a beautiful thing
The brick that holds up my house via compression, and will last for thousands of years and still work =
Aluminum, that is an excellent roofing material, because it never rusts (well not technically, but when it does, it makes a ruby hard surface when oxidized that protects it forever)
Glass, because if not shattered, lasts a million years
A beautiful thing
Whats not beautiful:
Windows computers, that crash and break when you overload them
Linux computers, that are buggery complicated and obtuse to configure or remember a long line of command line params for (nigh impossible if you are diabetic or hypglycemic), and whos man pages are total garbage
Mac comptuers, that you have to reboot everytime you pick a new set of extensions, and freeze with a rectangle and a bomb in them.
All cars, in general, that were never built with any study made by an engineer actually going into a junk yard, and seeing what lasts
Iron, steel because it rusts and turns to junk
Wood, because it rots
Rats, dirt, dust, lint, and spiders, because you always are having to clean up after them (in my computer shop)
You know, in 20 years in the comptuer business, the only piece of computer hardware I have ever had that has never become obsolete and turned to junk, is the ubiquitous standardized power cord. The POWER CORD! All other computer hardware, even keyboards and mice (switching from AT, to PS2, to USB) have become obsolete and crap. But these power cords, as humble as the are, are the only thing that have resisted obsolecene. Why, because its a !@#$ standsard that should never be changed. When you !@#$ with ANSI, you mess us all over.
I imagine now that I have posted this, the morons in the computer industry for no other reason are going to switch to different power cords, just to sell us all more power cords cause we have to buy them, because our old ones won't work anymore.
When I come home I turn on my computer. I browse a bit. Read slashdot. Checkup on a few online strategic games to see how things are going, update my website, code a bit...
All these actions are to make me feel alive. To puzzle with tiny bits in my life. A dog, cat, fish etc. would be the same.
When I was a child I had an aquarium. I could look at it. I needed to feed the fish. Sometimes I had to clean it up. It usually took several hours but was quite fun. Other times I bought a new fish and put into the tank.
We also had a dog. It was always happy to see me. It greeted me when I came from school. I hated when it was my turn to go out with it, especially when the weather was bad, but that's a part of life.
And now I pet my computer. It do make me feel happy. Time goes by. I have something to do.
Maybe it's not about the pet... maybe it's about having something (slightly) useful to do when we come home from a long day at work. Something relaxing. Something to take our minds away from work and into idle mode... just maybe.
-:) Oh no - not again.
www.rednebula.com
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
A robot dog is a pile of parts running a program.
At least you won't feel guilty about vivisecting your robot dog... and it is alot less messy.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
I have never seen a fixed cat hump anything.
And you forgot three important ones - play, purr, and cuddle. No dog is as cute as a playing cat. And my cats would be on anti-depressants if they didn't get to cuddle with someone at least once a day.
Wake me up when they build a cuddly robotic kitten, that will ride around on my shoulder being cute at people for the rest of eternity!
"Doctor! Doctor! I feel like a robotic pet!"
"Yes, yes, calm down. Aibo-leive you."
From the PARO Q&A section:
Ai-ai-ai!
Something that will never be duplicated by a robot is a pet's personality and individual look.
Most all these robots look and act the same, its fun for a week and then it is just another gadget.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
That "pets" fake or real are good for you is without debate. From a teddy bear to a dog they make us feel secure and give us something to care for. Yet in a way these pets are still a replacement, you don't give a toddler a real pet to take off so you give them a teddy bear instead. If you cannot or do not want to have kids a dog can be used as a replacement.
So why is it stupid to use more robotic teddy bears for older people who need something that reacts. Sure there are well established projects that bring real pets into the lives of the sick or the elderely but this is still out of reach of some people.
Allergies are the simplest reason. What if the patient simply can handle real animals. Should they live in complete isolation?
What if a patient is mentally incapable of dealing with a real pet. A patient prone to uncontrolled rage or just uncontrolled movement in general would be hell on the pets. A robot doesn't mind being flung across a room or being severly beaten.
And what of the other way around? Pets bite. Do you really want a bleeder to be around a real bet wich bites and scratches?
I also seen some experiments where mentally disabled people dealt with robots better then with humans. A robot is never moody never changes it pattern. I forgot the name but one mental handicap makes it very hard for its sufferers to deal with emotion in other people. A robot cat would always react exactly the same making interaction a lot easier for them.
I see this as a very nice tech solution to a problem with no bad side effects. No real dogs and cats won't be replaced for those who can take proper care of them. Yet for those who can't because it would be bad for the human or the pet this provides an alternative.
On the other hand, we should not see this as an excuse to deny people real pets. Why exactly do a lot of homes for the elderly deny them their pets? Oh sure I know the reasons, they just don't seem very good ones. Then again I never vote for the guy offering the biggest taxcut.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Japan has it right with this. Their robotic technology is getting better all the time and robo pets are developing among a population which seems to be willing to accept them. If only for the mental health benefits this can only be seen as a plus. Companionship without the moral responsibility at least for those who are otherwise unable to take care of a pet any longer because of age or infirmity. People who are otherwise unable to maintain relationships for other reasons because of mental or development problems are another group this can actually benefit. There is a human need for companionship and interaction and this sort of thing seems to be a good evolution toward fulfilling that need.
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
You believe the brain to be all of your mind.
I think science will prove otherwise with time. Physics include both relativity and quantuum physics, and there seems to be no end to the mystery in sight. String theory is dealing with what? 10-15 dimensions? How can you say it's all mechanical when science have been dealing with the mysterious the last 30-40 years?
Newton introduced the mechanical clockwork universe as a metaphor. He didn't even believe in it himself, it was just a model for calculating certain macrocosmic phenomena to him. Both Einstein and Newton respected and understood several concepts of God. Newton was christian to his death even.
This newfangled ignorance about it all, and calling it "science", is startling to me.
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
Once I had a dog. One time I rolled off my bed while I was sleeping, and fell on my dog. I spooked him. He bit me (HARD), and he gave me four very nice holes in my head. Still have the scars. I wanted to crush my dog's head with a reverse jaws of life. I have a pond in my backyard. Once, my dog fell through the ice of the frozen pond. I had to jump in and save him, and I almost got stuck myself. I wanted to choke the doggy life out of him. These are the short versions, and I've had other dogs. These, however, are the things I remember most. It's probably why I loved this dog the most. Humans love imperfection. I think pets, and dogs in particular, are the only loving relationship some people have. A robot will never be that, no matter how advanced it is. We know it's not "real". Maybe this will change somewhere down the line. But, We love things like us. Things that have a good, bad, and ugly. This study is quite flawed in my opinion. All they are seeing are the effects of novelty.
Tune out.
I've known a lot of stupid dogs that also think you are playing with it. Some dogs, you just simply can't punish, because no matter what you do, they think you are trying to play with it. It's absolutely hopeless. That's why I think something like this robotic seal is an advancement. It actually learns!!! A robotic pet would be much easier to train, because it would have a more intuitive learning system, that works the way a human would think that a pet should learn.
I have a five-month old baby who has had three ear infections so far. Every time, two days before he showed outward symptoms, one of our dogs (who sees herself as his "mommy") has started to incessantly lick the ear that was infected. I don't think that the robotic pets are going to do that!
Or, it could be read as: Your dog licks the ear of your child, which then takes 2 days to incubate any bacteria and present symptoms.
Live forever, or die trying.