I did kinda raise an eyebrow at the Tumblr posts about this, because if the way we feel about Opportunity is symptomatic of how we're going to feel about future robots, as a category, it should also be how we feel about robots as a category now (because Opportunity really isn't different), and it's not.

That is an extremely good point that I didn't even think to touch on, so I'm delighted that you did stop by!

And yeah, I love our tendency to bond with all kinds of unlikely objects too, but -- unless I'm making some very inaccurate assumptions about reality and consciousness -- the emotions we experience don't define the nature of whatever we're feeling them about. I care about Opportunity like I care about a character in a book or a beloved memento, not like I care about the well-being of cats or elephants or humans.