Rise of the machine companions
Your future companion may not be human. It may not even be a cat. Brace yourself for the robots that can take their place
Facebook has set its sights on the love lives of its 200m single users with a new dating service — but if the tech and gadget worlds have their way your next companion may not even be human. Over the past few years there has been an unprecedented rise in robots that act as companions, and this trend has not just been restricted to lonely Japanese businessmen. Thanks to the Dutch you can now buy a robot that gently "breathes" when you cuddle it, to help you fall asleep. Yes, it does look more like a giant bean pillow — and a stuffed panda toy would probably suffice — but the Somnox is just one of many new additions to a market that has taken it well beyond humanlike sex robots. The pursuit of robotics is not a new one but for a long time robots in the workplace were segregated to more service rescue roles (and not-so-secret military purposes). Powerful processors that would normally be placed in a cellphone are now being used to power robots at more affordable prices. This allows for...
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