Child's Play

Pretty soon we will be able to fulfill our barrenness with little Zeno, the robot boy.

1) Is he a replacement for the love of would-be parents?
2) If he becomes a play thing for little nerds, won't they just fall further into reject oblivion?

I have to admit he is kind of cute and bears only the smallest resemblance to Chucky; and at this point he is incapable of doing anything at all without the help of his plethora of computers telling him what to do.

Another thing the article mentions is the "uncanny valley" theory. For those of you who didn't get to that part in the article or don't know, it is the theory that robots that are too human-like and realistic become grotesque in the eyes of humans but that those only bearing a resemblance to humans elicit a positive psychological response. I actually find the circumstances surrounding this theory more interesting than the robots themselves.

Additionally, there is another new post at Red Reviews.