Nintendogs

I thought I’d lift my head from an editing frenzy and take a break to write about an interesting trend.

For Christmas my daughter received a Nintendo DS and the new game program called Nintendogs. This game allows you to ‘purchase’ a virtual puppy and train it, feed it, play with it, and pick up after it when it poops. My daughter chose a Golden Retriever and she’s been talking to it all day. The game allows a voice interface so you can call your puppy and give it voice commands.

It’s really cute. We’ve been oohing and aahing over the pudgy little ball of fur all day. What amazes me is not that this would be a major big deal for a kid, but that a child who owns a real dog would have so much fun playing with virtual pet.

This new game brought to mind the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, the inspiration for the movie, Blade Runner.

In Blade Runner/Androids as I recall [it’s been a while since I read it] there were very few live animals left on earth and people were given android pets such as dogs, cats, even insects, to care for in place of living animals. I wonder if someday we will find that our children will respond more to their electric pets than real ones. I wonder if children of the future will beg their parents for virtual puppies – or what the heck, maybe virtual ponies! instead of real ones since a virtual pet won’t wake you up in the middle of the night howling for company or standing on your spleen. You won’t have to stumble out into zero degree whether to walk your electronic puppy or fumble for the can opener at 5:00 am to appease a virtual cat. Pet allergies won’t be a problem and the landlord won’t need to be kept in the dark about the source of that strange meowing that goes on while you’re at work.

I’ll be interested to see where this trend leads. While I’m enjoying my daughter’s virtual puppy, I certainly hope that several decades from now I won’t be cooing to a virtual grandchild that she keeps in her pocket and plugs in at night to recharge.