Mark0ne
05-08-2008, 07:35 PM
HI everyone,
THere have been a lot of posts and discussions about the technical abilities of Pleo, including some sparked off by myself! But I wanted to show the other side of pleo, a side that is all too easy to miss if you let yourself become too grounded in the realism of technical capabilities.
The other day I had taken Digit, my pleo, to my sisters so my niece and nephew could take a look at him. They were immediately smitten with him, unable to keep their hands off him and marveling at his realism and movements. What was most interesting as I watched them play was observing my nephew who is techincally minded. When I first turned Digit on, my nephew asked all sorts of questions like, "how does it see? How does it know your touching it? What powers it?" and so on....
Now as they carried on playing with pleo the kids talked amongst themselves and I heard "Don't do that, you might hurt him!" and also "Look he's going to look at the football!". This was coming from my nephew and I suddenly realised that he was no longer relating to Digit as a 'thing' or gadget but as a real living organism. Digit was no longer an 'it' but a 'him' that could be hurt. Quite an achievment on a 13 year old boy always trying to look tough in front of his mates!
But the most wonderful thing to happen that day was on the way home. It was a lovely warm day so I decided to catch the bus and walk it home rather than let my sister drive me home. Nearing my house I decided to stop off at a cafe just round the corner. Sitting down with my cuppa I noticed a mother with a child who obviously had some kind of autism. As the cafe grew more crowded he became more agitated until, from the resigned look on his mothers face, I could see they were about to leave. Thinking back to my nephew I decided on the spur of the moment to try something. I took pleo out of my rucksack and placed him on the table in front of the upset kid. As Digit woke up and moved, making his soft honking sounds the troubled boys agitation became less pronounced. It wasn't long before he stopped crying altogether. I withdrew back to my table after a quick word to his mum to make sure not to let Digit fall off the table. I was just relaxing when the boy began making sudden movents with his arms. Thinking he was upset again I moved to take Digit back - but his mother stopped me,explaining her son did this when he was excited.
Thanks to Digit she was able to finish the rest of her meal in peace plus the boy had a great time watching Digit trundle around the table top and arch his back when he touched him.I gave her details of where she could get one if she wanted. Now you could argue that it was just the fact that Digit drew the boys attention away from the crowded cafe and onto 'one' thing more manageable. But I prefer to think that Digit does what Digit always does. With his amazingly lifelike responses and gentle behaviour he was able to reach through all the confusion and upset and bring out an equally gentle response from a human bieng.
In short - he touched someones heart that so needed a gentle touch. It left me feeling profoundly humble in Digits presence!
Peace and 'gentle' understanding to all our pleo's and their carers. ;)
THere have been a lot of posts and discussions about the technical abilities of Pleo, including some sparked off by myself! But I wanted to show the other side of pleo, a side that is all too easy to miss if you let yourself become too grounded in the realism of technical capabilities.
The other day I had taken Digit, my pleo, to my sisters so my niece and nephew could take a look at him. They were immediately smitten with him, unable to keep their hands off him and marveling at his realism and movements. What was most interesting as I watched them play was observing my nephew who is techincally minded. When I first turned Digit on, my nephew asked all sorts of questions like, "how does it see? How does it know your touching it? What powers it?" and so on....
Now as they carried on playing with pleo the kids talked amongst themselves and I heard "Don't do that, you might hurt him!" and also "Look he's going to look at the football!". This was coming from my nephew and I suddenly realised that he was no longer relating to Digit as a 'thing' or gadget but as a real living organism. Digit was no longer an 'it' but a 'him' that could be hurt. Quite an achievment on a 13 year old boy always trying to look tough in front of his mates!
But the most wonderful thing to happen that day was on the way home. It was a lovely warm day so I decided to catch the bus and walk it home rather than let my sister drive me home. Nearing my house I decided to stop off at a cafe just round the corner. Sitting down with my cuppa I noticed a mother with a child who obviously had some kind of autism. As the cafe grew more crowded he became more agitated until, from the resigned look on his mothers face, I could see they were about to leave. Thinking back to my nephew I decided on the spur of the moment to try something. I took pleo out of my rucksack and placed him on the table in front of the upset kid. As Digit woke up and moved, making his soft honking sounds the troubled boys agitation became less pronounced. It wasn't long before he stopped crying altogether. I withdrew back to my table after a quick word to his mum to make sure not to let Digit fall off the table. I was just relaxing when the boy began making sudden movents with his arms. Thinking he was upset again I moved to take Digit back - but his mother stopped me,explaining her son did this when he was excited.
Thanks to Digit she was able to finish the rest of her meal in peace plus the boy had a great time watching Digit trundle around the table top and arch his back when he touched him.I gave her details of where she could get one if she wanted. Now you could argue that it was just the fact that Digit drew the boys attention away from the crowded cafe and onto 'one' thing more manageable. But I prefer to think that Digit does what Digit always does. With his amazingly lifelike responses and gentle behaviour he was able to reach through all the confusion and upset and bring out an equally gentle response from a human bieng.
In short - he touched someones heart that so needed a gentle touch. It left me feeling profoundly humble in Digits presence!
Peace and 'gentle' understanding to all our pleo's and their carers. ;)