Brazil’s lifelike doll craze

Della said:
I'm glad that some dementia patients find them comforting. I would just hope they didn't realize at some point that their "baby" wasn't alive. That would be traumatic for them.
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They don't though - or at least it isn't traumatic because the times when they know the doll isnt real they don't remember when they thought it was.
 

You know, it just struck me that this topic is, over the coming decades, going to become even more strange. We're ushering in an AI and robotics revolution, and it doesn't take much imagination to picture these dolls being animated, able to communicate, and react to moods and commands. And apparently, some people will gladly give houseroom to them, and even let them in to the lives of their children.
 

Della said:
Has anyone read, Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro?

Set in the near future, the book is told from the point of view of Klara, a solar-powered life like robot, who is bought as a companion for a sickly teen. One of the best books I've ever read.
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I have. Very good book. This thread does that bring to mind. Also the (overlong) 2021 movie "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" with Haley Joel Osment.
 
January said:
They don't though - or at least it isn't traumatic because the times when they know the doll isnt real they don't remember when they thought it was.
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I was picturing it all happening at the same time, as in carefully picking the baby to feed it and not being able to wake it up -- as in crib death. I can't guess everything a dementia person is thinking, but I've heard people talk about their relatives as being far more aware some days as others.
 
A friend's daughter lost her baby son to cot- death. She found a woman who lives near her place, who is a sculptor, and provided her with a photo of the deceased son, together with strands of his hair and got her to make an exact replica of him. I found this rather strange or even
morbid. My friend said she would never want to see it, even it was her grandson.
 
It's probably apocryphal, but I read on a cruising board once about a lady who took her two "reborn babies" on a cruise and was highly indignant that the cabin steward wouldn't provide her with two cribs for the dolls as "they can't sleep in the same crib". He was willing to bring her one crib, but nooooo....

In a way, I can believe it, though. Just for kicks, years ago I read the entries on a forum for the owners of those dolls and some of them are really, really strange. They have baby showers when someone gets a new doll. There are long discussions on what the doll "likes or dislikes". One lady was trying to wean "Maxwell" from his pacifier. Another discussion was how long do you keep the doll's crib in your room before moving it to its own room, etc.

Yikes. But, on the other hand, to each his own.
 
oscash said:
A friend's daughter lost her baby son to cot- death. She found a woman who lives near her place, who is a sculptor, and provided her with a photo of the deceased son, together with strands of his hair and got her to make an exact replica of him. I found this rather strange or even
morbid. My friend said she would never want to see it, even it was her grandson.
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Sadly , grief has no boundaries, if it helped her come to terms with the death of her baby.. ..I say good !
 
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