Robotic Dogs

The Aibo robotic dog by Sony

Okay, now this belongs in the strange news category in my opinion.  Unbelievably, I heard this news story a few days ago.  They are expecting robotic dogs to replace real ones in the future, especially in dense urban areas.  Right now, supposedly 37 percent of households in the US have dogs while 30 percent have cats.  There’s also an overlap where people have both cats and dogs and the estimate is that half the population keep pets.

A study in the Frontiers of Veterinary Science predicts that by 2050 it will be impossible for people living in densely populated areas to have pets due to enough room for people and their beloved pets.  I can see how large dogs would be an issue over the smaller ones if housing areas will be smaller and perhaps with no yards.  I don’t see cats as being an issue because they don’t require much space and can use litter boxes.  Maybe dogs can be trained to use a litter box. 

The study says that people care for their robotic dogs but treat them more like the characters in a video game and use them for entertainment, something you wouldn’t do with a real dog.  People feel less responsibility for robotic or virtual pets, thus requiring them to be repaired at times.  Apparently, a robotic animal can also die of neglect and mistreatment, especially since Sony closed its last Aibo robotic repair clinic a few years ago.  (Sony invented the robotic dog.)  So people in Japan who own the robotic dogs even hold funerals for them.  Yes, you heard that right.

I think the lack of spaces to walk dogs and let them have exercise will be limited in the future, but I think the timeline might be a bit further away than the predicted 2050.

What do you think about all this?  If space becomes an issue, would you have a robotic pet in place of a real one?  What good are they really, other then there are no food and vet bills?