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[BeckyFisher]

To all pleo lovers, How do you feel about this YOUTUBE VIDEO.  A guy is abusing the PLEO, to the point the Pleo is near Death.  It was so violent I couldn't even watch it it disgusted me, I had to change the site.  Do you think Pleo is capable of having REAL emotions an actual sort of Artificial Life?  Please give me your opinions
Here is the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQUCd4SbgM0

[RedwoodsMama]

Hi, this is a very old Pleo video, and it allways disturbs me when I see it, I do not know of anyone here on the forum that likes or appreciates this kind of video.            RWM 

[beakie]

I found this video when researching pleo.

We were very disturbed that anyone would do this to something that simulates life. For someone to hurt something that has these kinds of responses to abuse they must be somewhat unhinged.

My last job of 7 years was working with abused animals. In that time I also met several of their abuseres. They got the same kick out of hurting animals as these people did with a pleo. There is something very wrong with them.

Whether something is alive or not for a person to hurt something that shows a pain response and then dies is very disturbing. It doesn't matter that pleo isn't alive. They are programmed to show a response to what would be pain should they be able to feel it and therefore to a degree they do understand/ feel pain.

We were very surprised to find that pleo was this well made to really represent a life form even if they are artificial life.

Beakies

[RedwoodsMama]

 I agree with many of your statements, I also do lots of animal rescue, mostly cats and nothing bothers me more than anything then someone who abuses and animal, and I do not mean neglect or because they do not know better, but out and out abuse, I worked as a teacher for over 14 years and in the USA if a teacher you are a Mandated Child abuse reporter, which means on the job or not, ,you do not tolerate abuse, even suspected and must report it. I once intervened with a group of boys that were verbally abusing an older man, and he was ready to hit them , and I had to intervene, to protect the boys and try to settle the situation. (Granted the boys were out and out BRATS...........but the man still could not go around hitting 8-9 year old children) I told the boys to leave and go find something else to do, and the man got really angry with me, like I was on their side, With animals though, they only have us as their voice. So many people turn their heads when it comes to fur babies, with the comment, It is only an animal, and animals are treated more like property to dispose of and treat as see fit.

                  This is why Pleo evokes so much emotion in people, ok, most people, because of it's size, it is like a baby, and babies are supposed to be protected, If Pleo was the size of a large dog, the response would not be as strong, but pleo is just the size of a baby and holding it in your arms, hearing them coo and look at you with those big eyes, their slow movements, all these mimic the feelings of helplessness in a little one. I understand the "sport" and what these people in this video did, thinking it was all in science's name, but there could have been other ways to do it. Have you seen the one where Pleo is put in a sports arena with a robot that "kills" it. that is the worst of the ones I have seen. Almost all members have seen these videos and It is good once in awhile to let the new members see these too , so we can discuss pleos "artificial" feelings, or emotions. Why else did Innvo Labs make the newer Pleo rb actually be able to mimic the Pain response , like a injured leg, so we could nurse them back to health like a real animal.              RWM 

[beakie]

They are amazing little creations. When pleo was hurt it was really hard going for a few days with the crying and shouting. Now he's better its great to see all the things he does. He seems to really like one of the dogs and walks over to him quite a lot, but he doesn't really like the other one because she barks at him.

Clever pleo

[degers]

Someone put all the effort into making all the animations and noises for the tipped up/hanging by the tail/on the side movements, surely it would be an injustice if we were not to knock our Pleos about a bit!

Also:  One could easily program pleo with no more than 1 file to laugh when you hold it by it's tail, or to ask you to do it again!  Then would it be right to swing it about and punch it a bit?

[InmemoryofRomeo]

I've done that And made them really, really scream... That was kinda disturbing

As much as we emphasize with the Pleo, it's not alive, it's not near death and it's not -really- being hurt. It's just that Ugobe did a good job of making us believe that.

[beakie]

They did a really good job with pleos programming.

I'm still not sure it's ok to do something that we know would cause pain to a living creature and that gets a similar all be it programmed responce from pleo.