Few children care that it wouldn’t be able to understand them as another human could. The kids she asks about having a robot babysitter agree that a robot would generally be more efficient and make fewer mistakes. Turkle goes on to explore the advancing technology of robotics with My Real Baby, a doll able to perform many of the same actions of a human baby. Turkle interviews many children who bond with these toys as they would with another person. The Tamagotchi (digital pets a user must care for as if they are real pets), Furby (small robotic toys programmed to speak their own language at first and more and more English over time, giving the appearance of learning), and AIBO (a robotic dog) of the 1990s are a step beyond ELIZA because they make demands of the user, presenting themselves as ready for a relationship. It acts mostly as a Rorschach that people use to express themselves. In the 1970s, Turkle meets ELIZA, a computer program that “engaged in dialogue in the style of a psychotherapist” (22).
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