The Pleo Dinosaur

I really hope my daughter does not see a commercial for this. It sounds, on the one hand, utterly amazing. A robotic dinosaur that can interact, cries when you mistreat it and more. (The price is a tad out of reach for me. $350.00. Ouch!)

On the other hand...she has some "virtual pets" already. I'd rather she interact with her real pets more. She seems to have finally gotten over the loss of our one dog, and is bonding with the other (the one dog was her favorite). But her fish are more my fish. I do most of the feeding and all of the maintenance. If "virtual pets" are supposed to act as teaching tools and help develop responsibility...the jury is still out!

Via BoingBoing, which has a link to a creepy video where one of these is "killed". Some interesting notes there, and a mention of a book co-edited by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett that I need to pick up!