What if robots were our pets?

I have read a very interesting article by Zoë Corbinn in The Guardian with an interview with Kate Darling who is an MIT researcher about a book she has written called The New Breed in which she proposes an idea that I find interesting, and that is to look at robots not as if they were our competitors, but as if they were our pets.

Since the beginning of times we have domesticated animals and they serve us in a multitude of tasks, companionship, hunting, work,…. almost anything. And much the same is happening with robots.

But we see some in positive and others in negative.

We see some as a help and others as a threat.

If we change our perspective, things can start to change and make people (workers) rethink the person / machine relationship, giving it a more positive approach.

Companion robots are rejected by many people even though they are spreading widely in the East. Seen as a pet, things change, and it becomes a possible companion.

And we could continue with the examples, because robots are going to spread with our way of life.

Resisting something that is going to happen, no matter what, is not smart at all, and robots are here to expand their field of activity.

I think it is much better to take them positively and see the best way that we can interact with them.

I like Kate Darling’s take on robots.

Although other comments are welcome.