Why Robopets Will Never Be Real Enough

Every morning, I am stirred awake by one of the dumbest creatures in existence: a once-abandoned, now adopted 3-year-old orange tabby cat named Cheddar. In exchange for this wake up service, Cheddar gets free meals, pricy vet trips, and plenty of scritches, as do tens of millions of other pets in the U.S. alone. The more cynical among us might say that pets are little more than expensive and far too loud roommates. Not only do you have to regularly pay attention to and feed these roomies, but oftentimes you'll need to fork over lots of money to keep them alive, particularly for breeds predisposed to health problems. It shouldn't be surprising, then, that for decades, some segment of the population has hoped that these furballs could one day be replaced by mechanical facsimiles with less upkeep and cost but all the benefits of domestic companionship--a robotic pet, in so many words.