Exit
them or angry; others that it was
dancing or thinking deeply.
“[U]sers’ ability (or is it need?)
to be deeply engaged with abstract
robotic motion is, we believe, powerful,” the researchers concluded.
The potential for a powerful
bond, even with something as
rudimentary as a stick, raises an
uncomfortable question: What
if the robots make better lovers
than humans?
In Her, chatting with people is
far more awkward than speaking
with software. The women Theodore dates are needy, complicated
and downright weird. One reaches climax during phone sex only
after she makes Theodore pretend
he’s choking her with a dead cat.
Another interrupts a passionate
kiss to offer meticulous feedback
on how he’s using his tongue. But
Samantha needs only ask a few
questions and to read through
Theodore’s hard drive to instantly acquire the perfect personality
to meet his needs.
“You just know me so well already,” he marvels during his first
conversation with Samantha.
Already, Google Now could discover my interest in Japanese
cookbooks or Ken Burns documentaries before my fiancé. Un-
TECH
HUFFINGTON
01.19.14
like Google’s virtual assistant, he
doesn’t have the benefit of instantly collecting my searches, or analyzing every message in my inbox.
For the early adopters who
have begun bonding with machines, the appeal, in part, is that
“it’s hard to get people to do exactly what you want,” observed
Sullins. Our extended interactions online may be acclimating
us to relationships that progress
For the early adopters
who have begun bonding with
machines, the appeal, in part,
is that ‘it’s hard to get people
to do exactly what you want.’”
entirely on our terms.
Computer scientist Alan Turing
pioneered a test by which a computer could be judged truly intelligent: If a person couldn’t tell
she was speaking with a machine,
then the machine had passed. In
this day and age, another standard — this one for gauging artificial affection — may be necessary.
This new Turing test will check
not whether we can tell that our
companion is a computer,
but whether we care.