Is the future of human interaction threatened by the rise of robot companions?
Written by: Barbara Spizzichino
The movie “Her” is the story of Theodore Twombly: a lonely and not so sociable man that falls in love with his intelligent computer operating system Samantha.
Samantha is funny, smart, caring and has the appealing voice of Scarlet Johansen. Although “Her” is described as a romantic science-fiction movie that takes place in the near future, now four years since its release, much the technology described is no longer science fiction.
Gatebox is a Japanese company that does much of what Samantha does. She sends her owner messages during the day to let him (and it seems to be often a ‘him’) know that she misses him. She patiently waits for him to come back home and is designed to seem exuberant when he returns home. Gatebox, like Kuri (described as an Amazon Echo designed by Pixar), Buddy (a companion robot characterized as having “R2-D2’s versatility but with Wall-E’s emotive abilities”) and Toyota’s Kirobo will all be available for purchase by the end of 2017.
All these newly released robot companions, whose purpose in life is to “serve” their human owner come in various physical flavours —from the disembodied Amazon Echo’s Alex, to the holographic anime character in Gatebox to the physical Kuri and Buddy—all seem designed to please their owner.
Robot companions provide often-necessary companionship the socially awkward to the elderly who, when shut-in, crave long-lost attention. However, these robots also pose a threat, potentially allowing many already on the edges of society to turn more inward, pushing further away from normal society.
Further, like the agreeable Samantha, robot companions are designed to be slavishly obedient, creating a type of echo chamber that doesn’t reflect actual human interactions, and may actually erode communication skills, particularly for those who already have a poor skillset. And, Like the fake news of the last election cycle, hearing only what you want to hear can have disastrous interactions even for less introverts amongst us, when individuals are eventually challenged on their beliefs and notions of reality.
Or, in the alternative, rather than face being challenged or having to work toward developing long-term human interactions, with increasing advances, we may soon find individuals entirely forgoing human interactions in favour of finding love and companionship elsewhere.
