Question 1

The author talks about on page 129 of the relationship with a living being and a machine and how Rich started to form feelings and a relationship between him and Kismet.  They have conversation talking about his watch that his wife gave him and Kismet showing interest wanting to know more (129).  Explain how this could be or not be a benefit in today’s society with being in a relationship with a machine and relationships with other beings.

A benefit to being in a relationship with a machine is that it could decrease the amount of loneliness that the people of this world face. A relationship with a machine is mostly one sided in the fact that the machine has no option but to stay. When it comes to real life relationships, people may choose a person but that person may not choose them back. Wanting so badly to have any sort of relationship with someone that doesn’t want you back is devastating. Or sometimes even worse, both might get attached, but something destructive in the relationship happens and the best possible thing is to end it, leaving them both broken and lonely. A relationship with a machine could potentially erase that feeling of brokenness and loneliness in people that no one ever wants to have to deal with. Although I feel like a relationship with a machine could potentially be a fix for loneliness and brokenness, I also feel like it would only be a temporary fix. Feeling lonely is a larger issue than most people want to admit. We all want to believe that we have people in our corner and people that we can count on. Most people do, but still struggle with the feeling of being lonely besides all of that. Having a machine that is always by your side and always seems interested in what you have to say could help people’s feelings of loneliness and brokenness. With that being said, the reason I believe it would only be temporary is because as humans we also thrive on problems of others. We like to try to fix people and help them. It can’t all be a one-sided relationship. I also believe that these relationships with machines could harm people because they would rely solely on this relationship to keep them sane and human interaction would fall. Everyone, even if they don’t believe this to be true, needs some kind of human interaction. Interaction with humans, whether it’s a simple smile and wave or a more intimate interaction, optimize the ability for humans to be socially and psychologically well. Gaining and maintaining relationships with people is one of the many basic needs for all human beings. As humans, we need that feeling of being accepted by someone and we also need to be accepting of others. To be fulfilled, we need that comfort knowing that there is someone else like us who accepts us and wants to be around. We as humans need the presence of other humans to be all around healthy and thriving individuals.