The robot babysitters are coming:
Models now on the market range from the Hello Kitty robot — "perfect … for whoever does not have a lot time to stay with child," proclaims a vendor — to NEC’s PaPeRo, which tells jokes, gives quizzes and uses radio-frequency identification chips to track kids. In another generation, these sophisticated machines will likely seem quaint.
"The question is, if robots could take care of your children, would you let them?" said [Clifford Nass, director of Stanford’s Communications Between Humans and Interactive Media Lab].
"What does it communicate about our society that we’re not making child-care a number-one priority?"
Nass pointed out that surveys show people are least willing to use robots as massage therapists, even though robots could make excellent masseurs. The reason, he said, is the meaning of a massage.
"There are some things you do for symbolic reasons, not technical reasons," he said.
The Dish 