Beware the Seductions of Sociable Machines

BEWARE THE SEDUCTIONS OF SOCIABLE MACHINES

Electronics are literally everywhere these days. Everybody; kids, grown-ups and elderly people uses electronic things everyday and can't imagine a single day without using it. The electronic are important in the everyday life, and it is often not possible to have a job or go to school, without using a computer or a cell phone. The use of electronic objects is so big, that it has started taking over the "space" where human relations and relations to other living things used to be. People prefer texting others rather than calling them and the internet is used to get in touch with other humans. There are furthermore invented robots, which are supposed to take over the place pets used to have, because they are more "suitable".

There is more online contact than physical contact, which Sherry Turkle is commenting on, in her article:"Beware the seductions of sociable machines".

According to Turkle machines started out with being presented as smart things, but are now something used to be sociable with. As humans we react to "humanoid objects that make eye contact, track our motion and say our names as "creatures" with intentions, consciousness, even feelings". Due to this we care for these objects and want it to care for us as well. The problem is that this isn't possible, since the object is inanimated. But we still feel a new form of intimacy when we are alone, since we are occupied with the social robots. Using a sociable robot, like a computer, we won't get bored, since there is lots of stuff to do using the computer or the internet, which probably is the biggest application on computers so far.

The internet opens up a new world, where we always can get in touch with our family, friends and even strangers. Sometimes the strangers we find online end up becoming our friends, even though we never get to see them in real life. These online friends can be called OLO (OnLine Only) friends and IG (In Game) friends. But most of the time they are just referred to as "one of my friends from twitter" for example. Because we are aware of the fact that we probably never will meet up with our friends from the internet, we can make our identities just the way we want. We can describe our self as being a 25-years-old, dark haired male, even though we might be a 13-years-old girl who is blond. To build up an identity from the ground is possible as long as we don't know those we chat with, but as soon as we connect with people who actually know that we are a blond 13-years-old girl, we will be tired by this. That doesn't mean that we can't change our character at all, because we still can quite a bit: It's up to us what kind of photos we want on our profile, we can write that we love rock music even though we actually hate it, and in general we decide what we want to share with others and how to show our selves.

But sociable machines are more than computers, cell phones and the internet; a whole new group of sociable machines is being made. This new group of sociable machines is animals/pets, made as robots. The use of these can be found in different locations but some of these can be nursing homes, where robot seals can be used to help the old, sick people with their temper, or where a robot dog can stop those who feel lonely, from feeling this feeling. The robot pets can also be used by people who are being allergic to real animals.

Sherry Turkle believes that those who get a robot pet will start out thinking that having a robot pet is better than nothing. Then this thought