I was fascinated by this piece on Wired about our the research on our interactions and emotions with Androids: ‘Love in the Time of Robots‘. It revolves around the research by Hiroshi Ishiguro, a Japanese professor that uses beautiful replicas to research the human-to-robots interaction.
It is easy to emphasize with a robot: “As complex as we assume ourselves to be, our bonds with one another are often built on very little. Given all the time we now spend living through technology, not many of us would notice, at least at first, if the friend we were messaging were replaced by a bot. And humans do not require much to stir up feelings of empathy with another person or creature—even an object. In 2011 a University of Calgary test found that subjects were quick to assign emotions and intentions to a piece of balsa wood operated with a joystick. In other words, we are so hardwired for empathy that our brains are willing to make the leap to humanizing a piece of wood. It’s a level of animal instinct that’s slapstick-hilarious and a degree of vulnerability that’s terrifying.”
More importantly this research asks difficult questions about what makes us enter in a relationship and express our emotions. Are our feelings an illusion? Is a conversation an illusion of understanding what the other person thinks? What makes us believe we are interacting with another human? Would we be satisfied with an interaction with a robot? Fascinating questions for a not-to-far future…
