Your New Borg Companion

You know how you’ve been wanting a hot android companion programmed to reply, "Yes dear, you're absolutely right” in response to everything you say? Well, here’s some scientific justification for it; a new study has found that robot companionship is as good as the real thing. Well, at least when it comes to dogs. But in theory it may apply to human companionship too, since previous studies have found that a dog companion is better than a human friend in regards to health benefits.

A recent University of Utah study, for example, examined the physiological effects of pet support versus friend support on cardiovascular responses during stressful or challenging situations and found that that the presence of pets appears to be more beneficial for your heart during stressful situations than friends. Likewise, owning a cat could reduce your risk of a heart attack by nearly one third, researchers told delegates of the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference in New Orleans earlier this week. Most likely because pets don’t talk back when you’re feeling stressed with, “I told you so”. Robots can be programmed to behave likewise, with an added bonus: You don’t have to feed them, change their litter boxes or feel guilty when you don’t have time to give them attention.

In any case, Saint Louis University researchers recently found that sophisticated doggie robots are as lovable as the real thing. In fact, there was no statistical difference between whether the organic dog or the robot did a better job of easing loneliness and fostering attachments. The residents who received visits from real and artificial pups felt significantly less lonely and more attached to their canine “friends” than those who got visits from neither. The researchers compared how nursing home residents interacted with Sparky, a living, medium-sized gentle mutt, and Aibo, a doggie robot manufactured by Sony that looks like a “three-dimensional cartoon” over a period of several weeks.

“The most surprising thing is they [the robots] worked almost equally well in terms of alleviating loneliness and causing residents to form attachments,” says William A. Banks, M.D., professor of geriatric medicine at Saint Louis University. Banks says this research also bodes well for a future of robotic caregivers.

“This health companion could follow a person in his home, giving reminders on when to take medication or sending out an alert when a person has suddenly gone from a vertical position to a horizontal one,” Banks says. “A person could get tired of a robot following him around. But if you could change that inanimate voyeur to a personal part of his life and a companion, that could be entirely different.”

Now combine that with the radical view of artificial intelligence researcher David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, and you could potentially have an amiable lover and caregiver in one.

In his thesis, "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners," Levy conjectures that robots will become so human-like in appearance, function and personality that many people will fall in love with them, have sex with them and even marry them.

"It may sound a little weird, but it isn't," Levy said. "Love and sex with robots are inevitable."

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see on that one. All I know is that I had the hots for Data growing up watching Star Trek, so I can’t judge.

Posted by Rebecca Sato.

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Links:
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/10/is-future-intim.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/98432.php
http://www.labspaces.net/view_news_comments.php?newsID=3401

Comments

[Johnny Mnemonic]

Thou shalt not create a robot in the likeness of a human mind...

Likeness of a human female hottie though? Where do I sign up?

[Jacob Bradbury]

Who sponsored the study? A similar Japanese study found the opposite.

[Captain Sakonna]

Maybe the reaction depends on the culture. . . according to something I read elsewhere, though, the Japanese are generally more accepting of robots than Americans are (for example, their films portray them in a more positive light).