{"id":3075,"date":"2015-09-17T14:44:32","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T14:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/?p=3075"},"modified":"2015-09-17T14:45:19","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T14:45:19","slug":"barbie-wants-to-get-to-know-your-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/17\/barbie-wants-to-get-to-know-your-child\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbie Wants to Get to Know Your Child"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Anyone who has watched a child have an animated conversation with a doll \u2014 or a stuffed animal, a toy car or a Lego brick for that matter \u2014 has probably wondered what that child is really thinking. As the pioneering developmental psychologist Jean Piaget wrote in his book \u2018\u2018The Child\u2019s Conception of the World,\u2019\u2019 published in 1929, \u2018\u2018Does the child attribute consciousness to the objects which surround him, and in what measure?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

This question has only grown more intriguing with the advent of toys that, rather than waiting for a child\u2019s imagination to animate them, use technology to seemingly attain consciousness all on their own. In the late 1990s, Noel Sharkey, a professor at the University of Sheffield in England who studies the ethics of robotics, saw how this could play out when one of his daughters, who was around 8 at the time, started interacting with one of the first-ever artificial-intelligence-powered toys \u2014 a virtual pet called Tamagotchi. An egg-shaped computer that fit in the palm of her hand, the Tamagotchi had a tiny screen to express what it needed and wanted. Sharkey\u2019s daughter periodically pressed a button to give the Tamagotchi food; she played simple games to boost her pet\u2019s happiness levels; she took the pet to the toilet when the screen indicated that it needed to relieve itself. Tamagotchi\u2019s creators had programmed it to demand an ever-increasing amount of attention, and a failure to deliver this caused the pet to become sick. \u2018\u2018We had to break it away from my daughter in the end, because she was obsessed with it,\u2019\u2019 Sharkey says. \u2018\u2018It was like, \u2018Oh, my God, my Tamagotchi is going to die.\u2019\u2009\u2019\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018\u2018Hey, new question,\u2019\u2019 Barbie said. \u2018\u2018Do you have any sisters?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018Yeah,\u2019\u2019 Tiara said. \u2018\u2018I only have one.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018What\u2019s something nice that your sister does for you?\u2019\u2019 Barbie asked.<\/p>\n

\u2018She does nothing nice to me,\u2019\u2019 Tiara said tensely.<\/p>\n

Barbie forged ahead. \u2018\u2018Well, what is the last nice thing your sister did?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018She helped me with my project \u2014 and then she destroyed<\/em> it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018Oh, yeah, tell me more!\u2019\u2019 Barbie said, oblivious to Tiara\u2019s unhappiness.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018That\u2019s it, Barbie,\u2019\u2019 Tiara said.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018Have you told your sister lately how cool she is?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018No. She is not<\/em> cool,\u2019\u2019 Tiara said, gritting her teeth.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018You never know, she might appreciate hearing it,\u2019\u2019 Barbie said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Barbie Wants to Get to Know Your Child – The New York Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone who has watched a child have an animated conversation with a doll \u2014 or a stuffed animal, a toy car or a Lego brick for that matter \u2014 has probably wondered what that child is really thinking. As the pioneering developmental psychologist Jean Piaget wrote in his book \u2018\u2018The Child\u2019s Conception of the World,\u2019\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3pfIY-NB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3075"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3078,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075\/revisions\/3078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}