Could you feel an emotional bond to a robot ?

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I have just seen a report that some US army men have bonded with their robots.

What do you think ?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/200 ... otbrethren

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Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

Of course you can. You can form an emotional bond with anything. Just look at children who can't bear to be separated from their stuffed animals or blankets. Adults often have special objects too. This seems like a very likely situation and not very surprising.

Sure, you can bond with everything, some may also ask where exactly you draw the line between "human" and "robot".

I was just browsing "Wired for War" at a bookstore today. Looks like a fascinating book.

A lot of us probably have emotional bonds with our computers. A robot is not really a stretch.

I've been emotionally attached to a big motorcycle I once had. Now if that also had robotic circuitry and could talk - with a female voice then I'd probably marry it too!

"There's probably nothing in the world that someone hasn't made a fetish of" - Deitrich, Barney Miller...

There are some 'robots' in Japan the go overboard...

search on 'fembot' some time...

Think of -Westworld- or -Future World-.

ruveyn

I think I remember seeing a documentary that had a woman passionately in love with a fence.

I don't feel emotional bonds with inanimate objects, but I do think in terms of respecting them and treating them properly.

Not long ago, I rolled my truck which caused quite a bit of damage, although it was mostly superficial. It's hard to describe how I felt ... it's like I let someone down. I don't mean the truck itself ... I'm not anthropomorphizing the actual machine ... but I felt as if I'd done something to offend the universe. The accident itself was probably 50% my fault and 50% pure randomness, and I had a hard time not taking on the entire 100%.

I have enough difficulty with emotional bonds with people, let alone robots.

Woodpecker, why not? Surely you miss your home when you are gone from it, and are happy and relieved to return?

The military report is an old (4+ years) example of humans bonding with machines that display complex behaviors. As the behaviors become more complex, bonding becomes more likely.

I am very comfortable when in my home, and can become very uncomfortable or even melt down entirely when outside it. But I'm not certain I'd say I have bonded with my home, insofar as bonding is often used to imply a reciprocal relationship.

I see no reason I couldn't bond with a sufficiently sophisticated robot.

Could happen. I definitely feel a bond with my PDA and my laptop.

Look at it this way, humans are simply a massive group of cells, robots are simply a massive group of atoms. If a robot is sophisticated enough, I don't see why you couldn't easily form an emotional bond with it. Besides machines don't lie, don't have stupid body language and say what they mean, its a win win situation.