>
>
> Thank you Larry!
>
> I can say with absolute honesty that I am NOT a robot. There have
been
> many people in my life who may have wished I was, but there isn't a
> coin large enough for a wishing well to make that one come true.
>
> kathy
> redwood city, ca
>

Hi Kathy,
Believe it or not, becoming a robot is a fantasy that occassionally
pops up in autistic children. Bettelheim wrote a famous chapter
in "Empty Fortress" about a little boy who fancied himself to be a
robot. The film "Artificial Intelligence" is about this. The story of
Pinnochio presumably started out as a fantasy by an autistic child who
grew up to be a writer of childrens books.

Yours Truly has never had that particular fantasy, though, and I don't
know any autistics who have had it. We ought to poll the group. I
think Steve may have had it. He was joking around, but the idea had to
have come from somewhere.

Yours,
Larry