Love Machines
I’ve never really noticed another person or thing’s love affect how I live my life, but the notion seems to exist that a machine falling in love with anything will somehow undermine how we as human beings experience love. Personally, this seems ridiculous to me and stems from human beings overrating the feelings of love. Don’t get me wrong, love is a very powerful and amazing feeling and governs a lot of decisions that we make, but the idea that love is something to remain unique and special to human beings is just preposterous.
The movie “Love Machine” never fully addresses the idea of whether a robot can experience love in the way humans do. Instead it seems to focus on the idea of using robots more as sexbots, in order to bring masturbation to a higher level. This doesn’t seem all that destructive to society, for as long as the robot has no way to reciprocate the love you place on it there will always be a desire to seek out other humans. We must therefore ask ourselves whether it is even possible to have a robot that can physically “feel” love the way we do. It doesn’t seem to be that big of a problem to give a robot the capability to simulate love through physical and verbal actions. Right now we could program a robot that will always remain loyal and devoted to an individual, willing to sacrifice anything and everything for someone. If we talked of another human in this way we would no doubt come to the conclusion that they were in love, but with a robot we reach a hang-up. The problem seems to stem from personal choice.
Our fascination with love, the thrill and mystery that makes it so amazing, lies in the knowledge that this person is willingly giving themselves up. That they are making themselves vulnerable to you. If we have a suspicion that an object is reacting out of obligation rather than of choice, than we lose some of that magic. Still the prospect remains sound that maybe one day a robot could truly feel love, when it becomes autonomous and is able to learn and adapt to it’s surroundings and experiences.
