If you have a big body bubble, why not make it tangible? Iconoculture reports on a new life dress for women by Anna Maria Cornelia. I guess you could sit in there and IM all your close friends.

Life Dress by Anna Maria Cornelia

And while I’m noting anti-relational trends, Iconoculture offers a succinct quote from a recent CNET article.

For many reasons, people bond with robots in a way they don’t bond with their lawn mowers, televisions or regular vacuum cleaners. At some point, this could help solve the looming health care problem caused by an enormous generation of aging people. Not only could robots make sure they take their medicine and watch for early warning signs of distress, but they could also provide a companion for lonely people and extend their independence.

While that certainly sounds convenient, I don’t think it sounds personal. The origins of the word “person” are fuzzy and may have several strands, but it was once a legal term for property owners (men) in the Roman empire.

When trying to articulate the doctrine of the Trinity, the Greek Church Fathers gradually came to link person with being to suggest that “God was being in communion.” In other words, the doctrine of the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) suggests being cannot being reduced to a substance or essence that precedes relationship.

Humans, as images of God, are persons in the sense that we are fundamentally relational with other humans. While dogs, cats and even robots may give us warm fuzzies they cannot enter into the messiness of a fully reciprocal relationship.

And in one sense that is what relationship is about: messiness, conflict, forgiveness, betrayal, redemption, and sometimes separation. Our capacity to wound one another corresponds with our capacity to enter into genuine loving relationships that cannot be duplicated with any other force, object or creature.

Sure caring for elderly can be difficult and messy and overwhelming. That’s part of what human life is all about. I guarantee it is not about sitting on the couch watching American Idol every night.