[Dprglist] The New Yorker: What Robots Can—and Can’t—Do for the Old and Lonely

[Murray Altheim]

This month there's an interesting article in The New Yorker:

   "In April, 2020, a few weeks after New York aging departments shut down
    their adult day programs and communal dining sites, the state placed a
    bulk order for more than a thousand robot cats and dogs."

   What Robots Can—and Can’t—Do for the Old and Lonely: For elderly Americans,
   social isolation is especially perilous. Will machine companions fill the void?
   By Katie Engelhart, The New Yorker, 24 May 2021
   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/31/what-robots-can-and-cant-do-for-the-old-and-lonely

Here's a link to the actual product (there's a video you can watch):

   The Joy For All Robotic Cat (US$109)
   https://joyforall.com/products/companion-cats

There's puppies available too, but no, I'm not a puppy person:

   "Thanks to built-in sensors and speakers the pup can recreate some
    of the more delightful moments of owning a dog."

...which I infer means cleaning up the fake dog poo on my front lawn.

Cheers,

Murray

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Murray Altheim <murray18 at altheim dot com>                       = =  ===
http://www.altheim.com/murray/                                     ===  ===
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     In the evening
     The rice leaves in the garden
     Rustle in the autumn wind
     That blows through my reed hut.
            -- Minamoto no Tsunenobu