News Room Contributor  Posts: 8031 Joined: 12 Nov 2002     | |
Copy Clerk Posts: 125 Joined: 21 Jan 2008     | Jeez... saw the headline in my RSS reader and thought it was some new form of 3D video call to beam a virtualised copy of a parent home to the kids. Instead it's creepy beyond belief. |
Muckraker  Posts: 251 Joined: 25 Dec 2008     | Boys and Girls. This is happening. The Jetsons. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 926 Joined: 7 Jan 2009    | Ohh touchy. What stops them doing this for dead service people? Or dead people at all for that matter. |
BANNED  Posts: 11268 Joined: 3 Jan 2009     | This is creepy as hell. User was banned for: Why do Many Girls take Pictures of Themselves?. (Permanent) |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 3404 Joined: 28 Jun 2008     |
Well then help them understand. Don't try and hide it, they're not as stupid as this guy thinks. They'll figure it out! And then we shall be |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 3923 Joined: 15 Aug 2008 | Dude...does this mean I can hang out with Holograpic-Elvis? |
BANNED  Posts: 932 Joined: 17 Aug 2008    | This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Either the young kids will accept it and become more attached to it than their real parents or the older kids will reject it for the retarded, creepy idea that it is. User was banned for: Oh god, bees.. (Permanent) |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1278 Joined: 18 Jun 2008   | I don't think they should underestimate a child's ability to understand situations around him/her. If they don't understand, try to explain it to him or her. And yes, this IS creepy. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1652 Joined: 2 Nov 2008 | Wow, this is pretty creepy, and it seems to fall straight to the very bottom of the Uncanny Valley. Honestly, I don't think this will work, and if it does, it sounds like it could have some pretty serious psychological problems when you try to switch between this cardboard representation of a person and the actual person him/herself. On the other hand, as Bored Tomatoe mentioned, recreational and casual use could be pretty interesting, I can imagine a lot of lonely nerds out there with this thing. Which is kind of bizarre in itself but hey, whatever floats your boat. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1108 Joined: 22 Nov 2008    | if the only thing you want it to say is "good night" - yes |
BANNED  Posts: 12958 Joined: 30 Jan 2008 | This is wrong on so many levels. User was banned for: Poll: What is your opinion on the Metal Gear Solid storylines?. (Permanent) |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 4150 Joined: 6 Sep 2008  | ...Yeah I got to agree this is creepy. Here's a better idea- why not let the servicemen record virtual messages for their children? I know we have e-mails and video conferancing, but thats only when you have access to a laptop. Why not, y'know, let them record messages to their families (Hey son, sorry I couldn't be there for your birthday, but me and mom got you a great gift...) to be delivered by this virtual thing. Having digitized AI parents is just creepy though. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1077 Joined: 26 Apr 2008  | I love you daddy. But really, this sits a bit wrong with me. I don't think you should create something to warp a child's perception of what's happening. Just be honest with them. It'll do them more good in the long run. |
On the Record  Posts: 6207 Joined: 10 Mar 2008   | I'll agree with everyone, this is insanely creepy. If the parents are killed in action, I consider it cruel to the child that the holograms continue to go on and pretend as if nothing has happened to the actual parents. This just seems cruel to the child to me. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 981 Joined: 28 Jul 2008     | This is rather disturbing, besides, unless its a really young kid, they aren't going to fall for it. There's no way I'll ever say "I'll love you" to a machine. If the father/mother dies, I actually think it'd be a good thing for the kid short term, until they got old enough to see they are being duped. |
Beat Writer  Posts: 202 Joined: 9 Jan 2009   | I think thats really cool but and sorta creepy. But its in the name of science and its helping kids cope so I guess its for the better |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2633 Joined: 30 Sep 2008   |
^Pretty much that |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2137 Joined: 23 Dec 2007   | Wow this feels like a wase of money... |
Press Junketeer  Posts: 443 Joined: 1 Feb 2008 | There is not much I can add here that hasn't already been voiced, but I would like to point out that child-parent interaction is more than just visual and audio, it tends to involve all the senses.
Quoted and bolded for truth. If my own experiences with my 1.5 year old daughter is anything to go by, children are really good at understanding concepts. Heck, I manage to shock other people when she starts helping me with the dishes, cleaning up, swimming, climbing, and generally figuring things out really fast - to the point where she is already figuring out how to trick adults and then get them to go easy on her when they figure out they were just duped by a 1.5 year old by smiling and laughing. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3404 Joined: 28 Jun 2008 |
Phones, anyone? It's also not like the kids are just going to be abandoned in the house alone, they'll probably have family friends or something staying with them to help out, or they'll be boarding somewhere else.
Kids are like sponges, right? You tell them how to do something and they refine it so fast it's ridiculous. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2940 Joined: 4 Oct 2008  | Guys, don't you understand? Creating virtual parents is the beginning of the end. Eventually they will grow and become more complex, eventually becoming self-aware. And then they'll overthrow their human masters and seize control of the world, along with their hordes of brainwashed army children. Fear them. |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 91 Joined: 17 Aug 2008   | First they say video games will warp your mind and they'll twist your view on reality. Now they are trying to warp kids minds by lying to them about their parents instead of telling them what's really going on. I bet if a video game company came out with this, they would say exactly what we're saying. Can't they make up their minds! |
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Pentagon Considering "Virtual Parents" For Military Kids
As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan drag on, the Pentagon is investigating new technologies to help families deal with long-term absences, including computer software that will let children interact with "hologram-like" representations of parents who are deployed overseas.
The defense department has begun to solicit companies interested in developing the technology, which it says should be able to offer children "a simulated conversation with a parent about generic, everyday topics. For instance, a child may get a response from saying 'I love you' or 'I miss you' or 'Good night.'" The software will require voice recognition and must be customizable for individual families, and be able to give "the illusion of a natural (but simple) interaction."
"The children don't quite understand mommy or daddy being deployed," explained Commander Russell Shilling, a Navy psychologist overseeing the program. "That kind of interaction - the need to say goodnight or to continue to feel connected to a parent - is very important."
The technology may be cutting-edge, but the concept is also undeniably game-like. "We are looking for innovative applications that explore and harness the power of advanced interactive multimedia computer technologies to produce compelling interactive dialogue between a service member and their families via a PC or web-based application using video footage or high-resolution 3-D rendering," the solicitation says. The military is accepting submissions from companies until January 14, after which it plans to award three contracts of up to $100,000 each to begin work on the project.
Some observers have expressed concern over the impact on young children of "virtual parents" who continue to live on after the real parent has been killed in action, but Shilling said the risks and benefits of the technology are still being examined, and that the project will be shut down if it proves excessively problematic. "Part of the research is to look at its safety and efficacy," he said. "We'd never put anything out until we are certain that it is good for the family."
And while Boston University Professor of Psychology Catherine Caldwell-Harris expressed support for the research, she questioned how both kids and other family members might react to it. "How would a young child understand an artificial-intelligence program that is a simulacrum of their parent?" she said. "Would the A.I. spouse be a nice stimulant to my own memories? Or would I even get more angry at the Army and think, 'They're just trying to fob off this fancy technology on me so they can send my husband out on his next tour'?"
Source: Time.com
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