Social Robots: Are Robotic Pets Any Worse Than The Real Ones?
Social companion robots are getting increasingly popular, more widely used and accepted. This might have happened anyway, but the pandemic accelerated the pace of their “deployment”. Not so surprising, many social workers have experienced that COVID restrictions took a huge toll on elderly people living alone, Aido Robot . The loneliness of the ageing population is a known phenomenon. A vast amount of research has found that a significant percentage of people above 65 are living alone, and many of them feel lonely and isolated. Also well proven is the fact that loneliness alone is a health risk. Elevated cortisol levels, the physical symptoms caused by the mental strain resulting in more inflammatory diseases, declined immune functions, elevated cardiovascular risks increase mortality as much as would smoking, the lack of exercise or severe obesity. How to tackle this problem when all social interactions were more or less banned, or at least advised against? Many of the socia...