Love is Subjective

A lot of people are concerned with talking robots because they think that it’s a fallacy, a lie and disturbing. In our class discussion, some classmates voiced their concern on the subject of talking bots because they believe that bots do not have emotions, making them “unreal” or creepy in comparison to talking to a human being. The comparison between bots and humans are tremendous but there will come a time when technology will be so advanced that it will be difficult to differentiate between talking to a regular person and a robot. One of the points that were mentioned in class is that robots, regardless of how technologically advanced they are, are incapable of love. However, what is love? How do you define love? Here are my thoughts.

Someone said love is a feeling of attachment, like how a person loves a cat and can’t part from it. But, if you look at a cat’s perspective, would the same fact hold true? People claim that animals show love as how a cat shows love towards its owner. However, I believe that love is just a justification catered to living things bounded by certain conditions. Take for example a domesticated cat. If you fail to feed the cat, the cat will wander around and might not even come back! Do you think the cat is attached even though you claim that the cat loves you? What I’m trying to say here is that not all organic living things feel love. A female praying mantis slowly devours the male during mating. Doesn’t sound like love to me.

Also I’ve seen several cases back at home where parents disown their children because they refuse to obey their parents. One family in my neighborhood disowned their son because he wanted to marry a Muslim woman. The social stigma is so great that allowing their son to marry a Muslim woman brought shame to their family. What you must understand here is that marriage with a Muslim means a conversion of religion by federal law. So marriage with a Muslim means that there is no way out of Islam even though you are not practicing the religion. Both parents are ashamed because their son is abandoning Chinese culture, tradition and family for one woman. Love is definitely involved in a family context here but attachment is not.

So what if bots do not feel love? So what if bots do not have emotions? I believe that talking bots bring about more positivity than negativity. A bot would not complain if you rant all day long nor would it mind if you use it to alleviate your grief and pain. A human being would. I would rather talk to a bot than talk to a person that does not even care or barely pay attention when you speak. A bot is definitely useful for people who talks too much for human liking or people who are introverts or anti-social.