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Friday, January 16, 2009

Artificial Intelligence

Ellie got Elmo for Christmas and she's fascinated with him, as I've already mentioned. At first I thought it was just Elmo because he talks and is kind of scary. However, I think it's more of an age thing. Ellie is scared of anything that moves on its own accord. She stared down the remote control train with an evil glare that would have killed it if it were alive like she suspected.

I wonder at what age children become OK with inanimate objects pretending to be real.

5 comments:

mjh said...

The impressive part is that she knows to be skeptical of things that are artificially animated, but not be skeptical of naturally animated things. How does she *know* that Elmo shouldn't move? How does she know that the train requires some externally applied force to move?

Yet, the force that moves dogs and people is (IMHO) significantly more mysterious, yet not frightening.

That is such a different reaction than my boys had. While all of them also recognized that it was "fake", they're reaction was to jump in and try to figure out how to manipulate it. To determine what the rules are for its use. (They take after me in that regard.)

Your daughter's reaction is really quite interesting. I wonder if she's going to grow up with a tendency for skepticism for technology and other forms of human based creation.

Niffer said...

Really? Even at such a young age, they were excited about things that moved? I assumed it was an age developmental thing common to all kids, but now you've got me wondering. I really should start looking for ways in which Ellie is defining her personality instead of assuming "all kids are like this". =)

Salina said...

Got your comments on the blog...

Not sure what the blood was from, whatever he swallowed probably scraped his throat on the way down. We probably will never know!

To get a counter you can just click on the counter on my blog and it will direct you to the website. I think it's statcounter.com or something like that.

Have fun reading!

Salina said...

Charlotte dances like crazy to toys that move and sing...she loves them. I think there's a video of when she first started doing it (click on video on my tag cloud to get to it).

Cooper tackles them and tries to figure out why they are moving and how he can make them stop/start/go faster.

I think it probably is a personality thing...but I agree, how do kids know what to be afraid of? And when do they get over it?

Niffer said...

Salina - that's interesting! They're definitely more Ellie's age, so that answers my question to MJH. I guess you both are right that it's a personality thing. Interesting.