Ideas & Opinions ROBOTS as Emotion-Companions?

[Winslow]

Much of what we see in science fiction has become reality. For example the mobile phone used to be science fiction but it has become reality. Astronauts landing on the Moon used to be science fiction but became reality in 1969.
The same with Robots. Currently, Japan seems to be the leader in Robotics. There are robots that can respond to spoken commands. Here in my own city there is a bank that has a mobile-robot that continuously patrols that area. And in Japan there are some restaurants that use robot waitresses and waiters.

But what I'm driving at is robots as companions for humans. Already in Japan there are some nursing homes that use robots as companions for the elderly patients. Those robots can even do conversation with the human.
So my question is---could that resolve the human problem of loneliness?? It would be even better than a pet dog or pet cat, because the dogs and cats can not converse, but robots can. So that's my question.

 

[Ziggy]

I think it would work on a basic level, you can chat about the weather and such like. However you couldn't have a proper connection with it. I mean at work your boss tells you how much they care about you and you can talk to them about anything etc. and that just annoys me cos it's obvious that they don't give a shit about you. I like honesty, if the robot told me I was boring and didn't want to speak to me anymore I'd think that was pretty cool and probably start to warm to it! If it told me I was its friend I'd just switch it off.