AAAS: Man's best robot
Who wants a robotic companion? Everyone, said David Calkins of San Francisco State University in a robotics seminar today. But after hearing his talk, I wasn’t so sure.
Calkins listed the many uses that robots could serve in the home. Robots could take over tedious household tasks, for example, and provide a conversation partner that can promise absolute confidentiality – or, as Calkins put it, “the conversation partner who won’t tell your wife you’re cheating on her.” Calkins said when his busy schedule and rental agreement didn’t allow him to keep a live dog, he kept a robot dog instead.
And of course, they’ll be ultra popular among “geeky bachelors who can’t get a girlfriend,” he added. Yeah. You know what he means.
Somewhere in there, I started to become uncomfortable, and it wasn’t just the reference to kinky robot ‘companionship’. Calkins proposed lots of perfectly reasonable uses for robots, focusing on how they could provide 24-hour care for housebound elderly relatives. Clearly it’s a good idea – the robots could be used to manage complicated medication regimens, and could call for help should an accident occur.
But I could imagine how this would play out over time. A robot would be cheaper than hiring human help to care for the elderly, and that could eventually translate into less human companionship for our elderly loved ones. Meanwhile, would we start to use the robot as an excuse not to squeeze grandparents into our busy schedules? “No need to visit grandpa today – RoboNurse will take care of him.”
We’ll soon find out -- Calkins says the technology will be upon us before we know it. “Like the internet, home robots will happen faster than you think, and will quickly become taken for granted,” he said.
Gulp.