Words Fail Me ...

» Boing Boing: David Gibbs against robot love

(Gibbs) told rally participants gay marriage would "open the door to unusual marriage in North Carolina.

"Why not polygamy, or three or four spouses?" Gibbs asked. "Maybe people will want to marry their pets or robots."

» WaPo: Robots, Which Now Perform Medical Tasks, May Learn to Provide Therapy, Support

"People are grateful that the Roomba improves their lives, so they reciprocate by giving it attention like they would a pet," says Ja-Young Sung, a doctoral student at Georgia Tech who surveyed 379 Roomba owners in 2007 on their attitudes toward the robotic device. Sung found that many owners who gave their Roombas names also painted them, dressed them in costumes or turned them on to entertain friends.

I have to admit that I'm not clear on why Gibbs refers to "pets or robots" after raising the specter of polygamy earlier. Not that the remainder of these two stories is all that much clearer to me.