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Feelings About Bots

I got a Roomba for Christmas this year and learned a great deal in the days to follow. A lot of research has been done on people getting emotionally attached to robots so theories abound. Some kids have made a business selling Roomba couture so it looks like a pet. It made sense how this could work. Very quickly, I realized that I "felt" something about the Roomba in a way I never felt about any household appliance. 

 They all do their job and save me time and effort. Yet they are different in that they are stationary and need to be operated. The fact that this device could navigate my home and find its way back to its docking station un-assisted warranted this "feeling". It did not require help to help me clean the floor. The initial response to the device has since worn off and with it that feeling. I can imagine an interactive robot that learned and adapted to the needs, likes and dislikes of its owner may actually build upon that initial response into something akin to a low-grade relationship.

 I needed to come into a Roomba to make sense of movies like Her that I found hard to watch or like in the past. I turned off the wi-fi function first thing to make sure the map of my house is not being sold to the likes of Amazon. Definitely not a fan of the smart and connected anything in my house or car. So far everything has been fairly dumb and I am glad for it. As more people get paranoid about being tagged, tracked, monitored and more and yet there is no way to opt out of the grid, I imagine there will be a booming business in securing the electronic perimeter of one's life. All of those who want to hold on to their data and privacy will pay for such a fence; making for even greater social isolation than has been the gift of social media.

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