“Her,” Robots, and Child Development

What I found particularly interesting and terrifying about the piece on Robots and Child Development is how often we are blind to the potential detrimental effects of technology and how easily we write them off. When I first was reading the article I wasn’t convinced. I think from a technological point of view the possibility of developing social robots is so fascinating and exciting that it is so easy to focus on the good and believe that critics are overanalyzing the effects of a piece of technology. However, once I came across this paragraph:

“What will happen if children grow up interacting with robots as peers and even friends because of the robots’ sociality, but also objectifying if not dominating the robots because the children understand that the robots are a human technological creation? Imagine, for example, if an 8-year-old’sbest friend is a social robot. The child plays with the robot everyday and goes to it for comfort and companionship. The robot always does what the child wants and the child never needs to accommodate to the social interests and needs of the robot. Does that situation put into motion a master–servant relationshipthat we would not want to reify”

I was taken back to the film “Her” and the reality that it is very possible that we will get to a point where the line between robot and human is so blurred that the effects of a child treating a robot as less than human could effect the way said child interacts with humans. A truly fascinating idea and a terrifying one because it is very likely that such a possibility will not stop technological developers from developing the technology that could lead to such a phenomenon. So I guess I am pointing out a question that we keep confronting- technology is changing and sometimes not for the better, how do we keep up and prevent the detrimental effects from harming children in the process?