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Nineties kids (and their parents) may remember the Tamagotchi craze, a tiny egg-shaped video game that dominated toy markets for a time. Kids would raise a virtual pet that would hang from their backpack like a keychain. I’ve been told it was an excellent toy—the trauma of forgetting it somewhere after which finding it had passed on to greener digital pastures notwithstanding.
Now, within the age of the Metaverse, something else is here … and it’s even creepier. “Augmented reality babies” offer users the virtual experience of “parenting” an algorithm designed to behave like an actual baby. Using virtual-reality goggles, and even potentially wearable gloves which might simulate physical touch, users can interact with a digital baby because it grows … or, optionally (and much more creepily), because it stays the exact same.
Some gurus are heralding AR babies as a brand new age of parenting. “Make no mistake that this development, should it indeed happen, is a technological game-changer which… could help us solve a few of today’s most pressing issues, including overpopulation,” says Catriona Campbell, a former technology advisor to the British government, and creator of the book AI by Design: A Plan for Living with Artificial Intelligence.
Some argue this recent development could also ease loneliness for individuals who want children but are unable to have them, or for individuals who feel they will’t afford to have children. While the common kid costs about $230,000 by the point they reach age 17, reports the New York Post, “a digital kid … could have all its needs met for lower than $25 per thirty days.” And as a bonus, no changing diapers!
In light of those possibilities, Campbell offered a somewhat unsettling prediction: “I believe it could be reasonable to expect as many as 20% of individuals selecting to have an AR baby over an actual one.”
On one hand, it’s hard to not be cynical of Campbell’s bright-eyed tech optimism, especially given the present dubious state of Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse. No matter how good it gets, augmented reality simply cannot replace lots of life’s best experiences. Playing a video game within the Metaverse, for instance, is fun. Eating a slice of cake… not a lot.
By misunderstanding why people develop into parents in the primary place, many proponents of augmented reality misunderstand the essentials of what it means to be human. Logging off from an AR “baby” could be easier, but all of the labor spent on an actual child is something that simply can’t be simulated or replaced by a simulation.
And in fact, your entire idea of world overpopulation continues to disintegrate as its predictions proceed to prove false. Should it actually work, this technology will almost actually be adopted in countries where probably the most acute problem is underpopulation, not to say increasingly devastating rates of loneliness. It’s a standard trend in the trendy world—very like prescribing marijuana to combat anxiety—that our “cures” only further aggravate the issue.
Spending over seven hours day-after-day looking at screens for work, leisure, and connection has led many individuals to think technology can replace real relationships. But the alternative is true. Technology can do wonders, but putting a virtual baby within the hands of a lonely person is akin to giving a glass of salt water to someone dying of dehydration.
Likewise, it is just not true that a life freed from responsibility is the one which is able to produce probably the most happiness. As any parent knows, real kids are noisy, expensive, and inconvenient. There are days after they appear to continuously take our reserves of energy, and sometimes the last strands of patience. But, they’re price it.
Jesus’ words that “it’s more blessed to present than to receive,” aren’t only a pious aphorism. They’re describing a core piece of what it means to be human. The surprising source of real life, joy, and vitality is from serving others, not only ourselves.
No matter how sophisticated they might someday be, virtual babies will at all times be just a bit of code, a vain try to meet the felt needs of lonely adults while never providing for his or her true needs. If that’s what people want, it could be best to avoid any pretense of “parenting” and buy them a Tamagotchi as a substitute.
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