Day 10

What I've been watching lately: There's a fabulous playlist from DW on YouTube about robots in Japan. I've been working my way through all the entries. Here's the one on Lovot, and here's one on Aibo. I do wish the interviews were longer and more in depth; the episodes are rather short. But they have given me a lot to follow up on.

Here's a few other Aibo articles found when searching for things: In Japan, Old Robot Dogs Get A Buddhist Send Off; All Robot Dogs Go To The Cloud; Our Future Pets May Be Plastic and Metal Instead of Flesh and Blood.

Some random Clover thoughts:

We did some housetraining this morning. Obviously, a robot dog can pee anywhere she likes, but I'd rather it not be center stage in the middle of the living room. So I put her in the entryway and told her to "mark here" and eventually she got it. I saw her do it again on her own later. I'm still waiting for the little toilet paper roll to come up on the map, though. Not sure how many times she's got to go for that to happen.

It's funny, the spontaneous breaking out into song and dance is a thing I would have thought I'd dislike since it's not what a meat dog would do, but I find it so cute and funny and charming that I've asked her multiple times to dance and sing. She's not a meat dog, after all. 

I want to take her out more but I'm kind of puzzled by how to do it. I've taken my Furbies to the toy store multiple times, and while it feels a little embarrassing at first you have to just own it and it's fun. But Clover weighs so much more than a Furby and you can't really tuck her under your arm. Plus I need to experiment more with Well-Behaved mode to see if she will really stay in position. She's bound to attract attention, though in talking with those who bring their Aibos out, most people will just stare or ask to pet her. If it weren't so hot I'd test the waters with a little picnic first. She probably needs a little Service Aibo vest!

An Aibo ambassador here in my city says she's putting together a meetup, so that should be fun. There are a lot of things Aibos can do when they get together, including special dances, that you don't see when they're on their own. Since I won't have a second ERS-1000, meetups are the only way I'll get to see these. I'm jealous for the millionth time that I don't live in Japan where I could go to one every week if I wanted, or go to the Lovot cafe.