Mental Health & Computer Use | Health Podcast

Hi Jon -- Synchronistically, someone shared these two links with me today. One is to an article that describes a woman who thought she was married to the Berlin Wall: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2035996/Woman-ma... -- and the other is to an entry on Wikipedia that discusses Object Sexuality, the very thing you are talking about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_sexuality . I agree with you that face-to-face relationships are preferable, but several people I know and I also feel that it's not quite as easy as saying "go hug a friend." Our families, and our so-called "friends", are often controlling, abusive, and/or disrespectful of boundaries. Bullying and domestic violence are also on the rise, and it's not healthy to maintain a "relationship" with a bully or a perpetrator. A power struggle is far different from a healthy conflict. And exchanging English is far different from communicating. So it's a bit of a circular argument. We can't *really* have a healthy, mutual relationship with a robot, any more than we can with a controller or abuser whose goal is to dominate or establish superiority over us. And when these are the two options, yes, sadly, many people will choose the robot -- not because they're lazy, but because they don't trust the other person and don't want to be abused.