cyber friends, real or not?

[mr d]

hello

 

recently read an article that stated that many younger children now would

 

rather have robotic pets the real ones. amoung reasons given that there was far

 

less care needed, and that when they weren't interested in playing with the pet

 

they could simply turn it off. also that robotic pets learned tricks far easier

 

an could learn to commuicate with them.

and a problem was shown that when placed in situations with live animals these

 

children had difficulty dealing inter-personally with the animal. expecting the

 

real animal to be as obedient as their robotic counterpart.

what i was wondering is, is this how many people are becoming towards real

 

human individuals. as our society's increasing fear of strangers drive young

 

children to be forced to spend more time indoors on computers building networks

 

of cyber friends, are they loosing more of the traits needed to deal with live

 

people in interactive situations.

even older adults who would rather communicate with the net companions rather

 

than going out into the world and making relationships in person.

do you concider a cyber friend a real friend, or are the dis-embodied enities we meet on-line, merely humans surving as the ai for pseudo people whom you don't have to truely know or concern yourself over their welfare. whom interact with us in areas or our interest and chosing, and who can be deactivated with the click of a mouse.

how will future generations react when dealing in person with relationships where they have to take into conciderations others personalities and feelings, how they others look, their physical handicaps, their personal differences in belief or areas of interest. will they still show the same level of tolerance of others?

 

strange thoughts

 

mr d

[sunspot]

Like any toy, it helps to build the imagination. These may also help one project their inner selves into the toy, bringing things to consciousness. Knolwledge of psychology could be useful. But even this can make one a closed loop, that makes it harder to deal with reality. The scientist working quietly in the lab plays with his toys and attempts to create new ideas and technology. The scientist needs to colaborate with others to add a dose of reality data to the loop.

 

On the other hand, just living in sensory reality deprives one of the inner world of the imagination. Such people may actually benefit by a toy that stimulates the imagination so they can add inner data to the external data.

[insane_alien]

i prefer seeing my friends(in reality) than playing with the rather stupid robots we have and chatting online. also i'll take a real dog over a robot any day.

[jtzako]

Ive used online chat programs and played online games such as MMO style for years. I have quite a few friends in those areas that I've never met in "real life".

 

I do, however, consider them real friends. When in games we're not necessarily chatting only about games, we chat about the things normal friends chat about. I know quite a bit about most of them but given that most live several states away from me I've just never met them off-line before.

 

I *do* prefer having my friends and relationships nearby so I can be a part of them face to face, but that doesnt devalue my online friends in my mind.

[Royston]

I *do* prefer having my friends and relationships nearby so I can be a part of them face to face' date=' but that doesnt devalue my online friends in my mind.[/quote']

 

I think I've used a chat room once in my life and didn't enjoy it, it's nothing like the real world, you don't get a true impression of how someone actually is until you're with them in person, and experience different situations with them. The thing with chat rooms or forums, you can have a lot of time to really think about what you say, and you can even delete it and reword it later in some instances.

 

Although I've been quite open on this forum sometimes, you never get the full picture of how I really react to circumstances, because A. there are certain rules to adhere to here, and B. there are many things I don't want posted for the world and their wife to view, despite if nobody really knows who I am. I think a lot of people enjoy conversing whilst being inconspicuous; it's kind of like a new identity. Though the only reason I joined SFN was to learn, you just get used to how people are on here...but I'm sure it'll be a completely different experience meeting them in person.

 

As for kids liking robotic pets to real ones...surely that's just a matter of convenience from a child’s point of view, because they don't really understand the respect and love you can have towards a real animal. So I don't see that as anything surprising.

[YT2095]

it gets much better

 

"Boy meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Builds Girl" !

 

(if Im not mistken that`s a Rudy Rucker quote)