Rise of the robots and all the lonely people | Letters

Some automation brings benefits, says Roger Backhouse, but people need human interaction too; while 13 signatories to a letter say that Christmas is the perfect time to tackle the UK’s loneliness epidemic

Two connected stories in Monday’s Guardian: Tom Watson asks us to “embrace an android” while Rachel Reeves describes society’s sixth giant evil as a “crisis of loneliness”.

Replacing people with machines decreases opportunities for social interactions helping many feel integrated. Self-service in shops, libraries, banks and other places means people can go all day without conversation with a “real” person. It is set to worsen, to the detriment of contact and service quality. 

Continue reading... December 14, 2017 at 12:44AM