It’s been many days since I last wrote. I've been reading Ted Chiang’s Exhalation and thinking of writing often, but life has been busy—we’ve been hosting visiting relatives from China since July 30.
One story I want to write about today is “Dacey’s Patent Automatic Nanny.”
Told as a fictional historical account, it follows early 20th‑century inventor Reginald Dacey, who builds a mechanical nanny to raise infants with clock-like consistency—free from the bias, mood swings, and emotional volatility of human caregivers. Dacey even has his own son raised by one of these machines.
He believes emotions are irrational, unreliable and that an objective, machine‑caregiver could do a better job than any human. He doesn't trust humans with emotions. What he fails to understand is that human beings—especially babies—need more than food, sleep, and safety. They need to feel secure through human contact and emotional attachment, which forms the foundation for healthy psychological development.
While his invention fascinates the public, it also provokes unease. Later studies confirm the fears: children raised by the machine nanny show marked deficits in emotional bonding and adaptability. Because the machine could not offer the human touch, responsiveness, and shared emotional life that help a child feel connected to humans.
While reading it, I think of this question: What does it mean to be human? Humans have the function to both think and feel. A machine can raise a thinking being but cannot create one with human feeling. The younger the humans are, the more they rely on their ability to feel. A being is not fully human if it cannot feel like a human in human society. This is where a machine fails.
Chiang’s tale is a reminder that while technology can do many things, it cannot replace the human attachments that makes us human. What some people fail to understand is human contacts are essential in making a baby a human being, that no machine, however advanced, can substitute the emotional bond formed between a baby and a loving human.