Do robotic little girls dream of animatronic ponies?

[kenjari]

This week's Boston Globe magazine is running a story about Hasbro's newest big toy: Butterscotch, an electronic pony. All I can think of is the replica animals in Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. (Blade Runner largely omits the thread about the robotic animals, only retaining a couple of quick references) Sci-fi's predictions about the future usually end up being proven wrong, so I always find it a little creepy when a sci-fi author turns out to be right, or at least damn close.