Comments on: Enlisting robots for day care

University's experimental robot is capable of tracking heads, identifying faces and interpreting basic expressions.

[Remo_Williams]

Awful.

What kid is gonna want a hug from this thing? Day care isn't about storytime or alerting someone about a wet diaper.

Remo

[TV James]

You'd be surprised.

Kids are curious, and until told that a robot is a cold, emotionless hunk of metal waiting to crush them because they won't stop crying for mommy, they're going to have no preconceived notions and interact with it the same way they do a cat or dog.

Me, with a 12-month-old, I'm more interested in what kinds of technology the robots have to prevent them from rolling over a kid or keeping their balance so as to not fall on a kid.

[Razzl]

movie plug...

Despite a groundswell of activity in robotics, the public is largely unaware of an uninterested in "human-cyborg relations"--yet. I highly recommend Steven Spielberg's somewhat forgotten sci-fi movie "AI/Artificial Intelligence" for a view of the moral implications that are coming when robots have entered our social space. The Evangelical kooks will have a lot more to worry about than stem cells, and sooner than they think...

[yeselcuk]

PKD saw this coming

Philip K. Dick saw this coming. Do you remember his story named Nanny? Our wallets are doomed 8-).