I disagree, but I do find it a very fascinating subject area. I would highly recommend reading through Valentino's "Vehicles"(http://www.amazon.com/Vehicles-Experiments-Psychology-Valent...). It's incredibly short, thought provoking, and somewhat humorous to boot.

He goes over building very simple machines that appear to have emotions, hopes, plans, etc., and goes over they exact topic you're talking about.