# Robot foster parents? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 3, 2007, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-foster-parents/428711 "2007-12-03T21:56:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-foster-parents/428711/1 "2007-12-03T21:56:44Z")
Are there stories about orphans being raised by robots? **Not** societies that for some reason or another have all kids raised by them, or ones where robots unofficially assume guardianship. Rather stories where there’s a storage of adult humans to raise the kids (maybe after some sort of population decreasing event) or where the government decides that orphans are better off being assigned to robotic “parents” than raised in group homes - having kids raised by robots has a bureaucratic component to it. So, know of any? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-foster-parents/428711/2 "2007-12-03T22:57:17Z")
Not quite the same, but in the webcomic _Girl Genius_, the heroine, Agatha Heterodyne, is raised by two artificial beings, Adam & Lilith Clay, a.k.a Punch & Judy. But they are more Frankensteinian, rather than robotic. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-foster-parents/428711/3 "2007-12-03T23:05:48Z")
In Sci-Fi channel’s re-imagining of the Wizard of Oz, D.G. (Dorothy) is raised by ‘nurturing unit’ robots until the tornado/long coats come to take her back to the O-Z (outer zone). ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-foster-parents/428711/4 "2007-12-03T23:06:57Z")
Brainiac 5 was a descendant of Brainiac, until someone realized the latter was a robot, necessitating the need for a slapped-together explanation of why a robot would want to adopt a biological lifeform (the eventual Brainiac 2, great-grandfather of B5). ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-foster-parents/428711/5 "2007-12-03T23:36:57Z")
the Nickelodeon “Nicktoon” of Invader Zim had a pair of “Roboparents” but they were mainly there as part of his Human “disguise”, and they were about as functional and stable as GIR anyway, which isn’t saying much… “They took my squeezing arm!!, why, my squeezing arm!!!” ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-foster-parents/428711/6 "2007-12-03T23:47:20Z")
In _Mute_ by Piers Anthony, IIRC the protagonist is raised by robots in a government orphanage after his parents keep losing interest in him and forgetting he exists. This is because he has a psychic power that has that effect on people; the robotic nannies entrusted with him aren’t affected and keep taking care of him. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-foster-parents/428711/7 "2007-12-04T01:25:39Z")
I have an old thread that might be of some interest: [Fictional Robots with biological children?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=390552)