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The Science of Human-Robot Love

Posted by samzenpus on from the don't-let-anyone-catch-you-loving-the-robot dept.

An anonymous reader writes "By harnessing a new sphere of science called 'lovotics', Hooman Samani, an artificial intelligence researcher at the Social Robotics Lab at the National University of Singapore, believes it is possible to engineer love between humans and robots. Samani's robots have artificial psychological and biological systems that mimic the human brain and endocrine systems, and use movements, sounds, and lights to show their mood and level of affection for a human."

9 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Movements and sounds of human/machine love? by Kamiza+Ikioi · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bzzzzzzz.....

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    I8-D
  2. I AM DILDOTRON by GameboyRMH · · Score: 4, Funny

    I AM HERE FOR THE PLEASURE EXPERIMENT MADAM. Please ignore my cardboard body, I am merely a prototype.

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    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  3. Robosexuality is a sin! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't date robots! http://www.hulu.com/watch/4510/futurama-anti-robot-propaganda

  4. Re:Love? by Eponymous+Hero · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Neo: I just have never...
    Rama-Kandra: ...heard a program speak of love?
    Neo: It's a... human emotion.
    Rama-Kandra: No, it is a word. What matters is the connection the word implies.

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    insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
  5. How long until we prefer a machine? by scorp1us · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Al joking aside about "robot girlfriends", an untiring, on-demand machine will become ideal. You only need to fill it with lube occasionally. It'll never object, it'll never come home drunk. It'll never interrupt your xbox time. It'll never reject you because you got fat or wrinkly. It'll make hedonists of today look silly having to deal with another human being and their schedule.

    And that will be the end... when we stay home because we prefer a machine. We'll give up on loving our own kind not because it is superior, but just because it is less "work".

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    Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
    1. Re:How long until we prefer a machine? by RsG · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Eh, depends on the person. Maybe if we're really lucky, we'll filter the most selfish and superficial humans from the gene pool within a few short generations. Let the androids and gynoids fuck em so the rest of us can get on with life.

      Of course, that does bring up the interesting question of what happens when they build a droid that's fully human, mentally speaking. At that point "sexbot" becomes a degradation, since instead of making an animatronic realdoll or dildo with legs you're instead making what is essentially an unwilling slave, with all the violation of basic rights that entails. In which case, if someone does build a "robot girlfriend" with the capacity to leave and be her own person (i.e. not a slave), does there still exist a difference between robot and human relationships?

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      Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
    2. Re:How long until we prefer a machine? by DemonGenius · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I honestly think if something like this becomes mainstream for too long, we will have trained all the empathy out of ourselves. If our primary emotional interaction unconditionally obeys our every whim, it is inevitable that we will expect the same from our flesh and bone counterparts. Since it will be easier to love a machine than a human being, it is not absurd to assume that we may value human life less. The fact that we are exploring human-robot love is a symptom of a much larger problem in that human empathy is decreasing all around. We can see it everywhere nowadays, all we have to do is compare current society to the same 30 years ago, but from a more local POV.

      I think more studies should be put into figuring out who we all are as individuals, what types of people exist from a psychological stand point (e.g. introverts vs extroverts, highly sensitive vs low empathetic persons, sane vs insane), how all these different types of people can interact in a more efficient manner, and how to best match people in different settings to reduce unrest. We also need to get rid of ridiculously fabricated categorizations of people (e.g. race, royalty, etc) since the prevalence of psychological traits have similar distribution in most of these situations.

  6. The end result by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 3, Funny

    We all know what the end result of this will be:
    Obligatory XKCD

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    Time to offend someone
  7. Re:Love? by NortySpock · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Um, that's not called love. You can call it eccentric, kinky, quirky ... even obsessive and crazy. But love? No, that's not love.

    Who are you to determine who or what someone else falls in love with? Sure, you may not be interested, but maybe you should leave determining what feelings are to the person who is experiencing them.

    What will you claim next? That homosexuals are not really in love? That their love is eccentric, kinky, quirky ... even obsessive and crazy? No? Then, by the same token, I say leave the robosexuals alone.