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Please Enter Your Query: What is a 'Pet Rock'?
Conceived by Gary Dahl in 1975, the pet rock was a rock packed neatly in a small 'pet carrier' and sold for $3.95. The package also included a care manual that included, among other things, instructions for teaching your pet how to sit, stay, roll-over and attack. (en.wikipedia.org)
This was not the last time that anthropomorphism played an important role in a fad. See [Tamagotchi].
Please Enter Your Query: What is a 'Tamagotchi'?
The Tamagotchi was created by Aki Maita and sold by Bandai in 1996. It is a digital pet that you can feed, play, clean and look after. The pet is a small egg shaped key chain with three buttons. The toy created much controversy in regards to usage in schools that was resolved through the addition of the pause and mute features.
For related information regarding virtual pets see [Digital Pet].
For related information regarding emotional attachment to machines see [Tamagotchi Effect].
Please Enter Your Query: What is a 'Digital Pet'?
A digital pet is a pet that exists entirely in a virtual world and have no physical form. These pets can exist either as a small gadget, on the web, or as a software application. Some digital pets are goal oriented, requiring the player to let the pet achieve a higher level. Non-goal oriented pets allow the player to explore their relationship with the pet more fully. These digital pets range from simple imitations to complex simulations and from realistic replicas to outlandish fantasy pets. Digital pets generally do not reproduce or die. (Adams, Rollings. 2003)
For related information regarding ethical concerns of digital pets see [Ethical Concerns of Digital Pets]
For related information regarding emotional attachment to machines see [Tamagotchi Effect].
Please Enter Your Query: What are the ethical concerns associated with digital pets?
Since there are no consequences associated with digital pets when compared to real pets, letting a child take care of a digital pet could teach the child bad habits in regards to pet care. A child can put its whims ahead of the pets needs without a second thought. The virtual world also lacks the constraints of the real world that allow an individual to apply substantive ethics (en.wikipedia.org). The lack of consequences can lead to virtual slavery instead of virtual pet.
For related information regarding emotional attachment to machines see [Tamagotchi Effect].
Please Enter Your Query: What is the 'Tamagotchi Effect'?
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The Tamagotchi Effect is the emotional attachment to something that others might consider 'just a machine'. These connections range from in depth relationships with a machine that has saved a person's life to an owner-pet relationship.
Soldiers in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan have robots that are used to find explosives. There are several recorded incidents of operators bringing their 'bot to the repair shop with nothing but the camera left. These individuals are not looking for a new robot, instead they insist that they get their old robot left. According to the soldiers who work with them, these robots have their own personalities and quirks. Some robots have been known to 'refuse' to work when they 'know' something bad is going to happen. In one case, a test of a robot designed to find mines was stopped by the officer in charge because the robot dragging itself to its death one leg was 'inhumane'. (Washington Post, 2007)
Children have had a long examined relationship with non-living objects. Research done in the 1930s showed that children had a very clear idea of what was alive and what isn't. The conclusion Jean Piaget came to at that time was that children made a distinction between objects that could move of their own volition and objects that required a push or pull. Later research showed that this wasn't the only factor. Children do not feel that objects like remote operated garage doors were alive. (New York Times, 2000)
With the introduction of microelectronics, toys have become more and more 'lifelike'. Dolls began to show emotion in response to their interaction with children. Toys like the Furby were closely examined by child and developmental psychologists. Research found that children did not feel that the toys were not 'alive in a human or animal way, but in a Furby kind of way' (New York Times, 2000). Objects that can be identified with, even those not designed to exhibit an emotional response, are 'animate' objects (Washington Post, 2007)
While most psychological study examines the emotional response and attachment human beings feel toward machines designed (or not designed) to invoke a particular feeling. In Descarte's Error (António Damasio, 1994), the famous phrase 'I think, therefore I am' is transformed into 'I feel, therefore I am'. The ideas of emotion, empathy and being human are very closely intertwined. Most artificial emotion development has followed the same path as artificial intelligence research, focusing on breaking down the human emotional spectrum into discrete slices and trying to imitate these as individual pieces instead of examining the environment in which they are exhibited. The broad range of data that needs to be analyzed to determine a person's emotional state is hard to measure by a computer. Human beings themselves are wired to pick up on minute fluctuations in verbal and body language in order to determine someone else's particular state of mind. In addition, they are designed to mimic others in order to put exhibit a more relaxing state of mind.
With the introduction of the Aibo, two types of people snapped up the new toy: young men interested in the latest new toy and people genuinely interested in having an animate pet instead of a living one. Those wanting to care for an animate creature exhibited the same behaviours as the average pet owner. The owners dressed their Aibos in addition to teaching them personalized tricks. 'The relationship between owners and their pets is so strong and personal, that ... at one Aibo get-together, owners were able to distinguish their pets from other [identical] Aibo dogs' (New York Times, 2001).
In the new generations of digital and robotic toys, there is sure to be a larger number of animate and empathic, or seemingly empathic, computers and machines. Human beings are known to anthropomorphize the world around them, finding faces and emotions in most everything they interact with. Is the photocopier really on the fritz, or is it holding a grudge from when you kicked it last week? Very soon...
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