I Dream of the Body Electric

I Sing the Body Electric is the title not only of a Walt Whitman poem, but also a wonderful short story by Ray Bradbury. The story concerns three children, whose father invests in a robot nanny to bring them up after their mother dies. The kicker is that at the end of their lives, when they enter their second childhood, the robot returns to look after them once more. It’s a story that has always affected me deeply, for reasons that I never could understand.

Today, I read about Japanese toymakers who are designing new dolls designed not for the young but for the lonely elderly — companions that can sleep next to them and offer caring words they may never hear otherwise.

Life imitates Art