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I don’t see this as any more dystopian than having a costumed human in character as Santa or Spider Man visit hospitalized children. For those who do, I think

I don’t see this as any more dystopian than having a costumed human in character as Santa or Spider Man visit hospitalized children. For those who do, I think that’s the comparison you have to make an argument for. Kids delight in plastic objects just because they are shaped like dinosaurs instead of sippy cups. That novelty is important to them. The robot is operated by a human, so the interaction is still rich. My nephews like me. My nephews would also like me-as-a-robot even more as an occasional thing, whether they knew it was me driving it or not. Given that the intention here is “more visits to sick kids that would not otherwise happen,” and not “substituting existing human interaction with a human-operated robot,” I think it’s a good thing. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

bjt2n3904 5y ago
There's a difference between a real person dressing up as a character from fiction, and a soulless robot coming to visit you.
- filoeleven 5y ago
  The soulless robot is operated by a person, making it more like a puppet. The contrast in the article between satisfaction with robot visits and “tablet visits” indicates a clear preference for the robot over the tablet. It doesn’t give any detail about what a “tablet visit” looks like though. The “visited by preference list” probably looks like this: Costumed Human > Robot > Tablet > Nothing I do think an interesting question is whether “random stranger not-in-character” beats “random stranger driving shiny robot.”