Aspen Ideas Festival

The Robotic Moment: What Happens When We Talk to Machines?

Machines have no friendship to offer, and yet we persist in the desire for conversation, companionship, and even communion with the inanimate. Has the simulation of empathy become empathy enough? The simulation of communion, communion enough? We are at the robotic moment not because we have made robots that are ready to be our companions but because we are willing to be theirs.

The Robotic Moment: What Happens When We Talk to Machines?

57m 37s

Machines have no friendship to offer, and yet we persist in the desire for conversation, companionship, and even communion with the inanimate. Has the simulation of empathy become empathy enough? The simulation of communion, communion enough? We are at the robotic moment not because we have made robots that are ready to be our companions but because we are willing to be theirs.

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