Re:Stuffed Animal != Good Parent (Score 1)

I understand your reaction. My first thought was that only a monster would leave their child to be raised by a creepy bear robot. (Imagine when WindowsTDBR crashes - how's a child going to react to that?) But then I thought that only a monster *would* do that. Any parent who would think that doing something like that is ok, is going to have far bigger problems.

There is also a lot of potential in this kind of technology. Think something like the book in Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. If we can find a way for toys to enhance a child's experience of the world, I think a lot of good could come of it. The problem is that as much harm could be done by a system that leads a child through a set of experiences. It isn't something we could feasibly do with present-day technology, but this isn't a shipping product, it's something in some lab somewhere. (What if it escapes?!!) It's something I would have to evalutate carefully before I gave one to my kid, but I think I'd want to play with it first anyway, so I don't think that will be a problem.