Part One

Part One: The Robotic Movement

The first part of Alone Together concerns robots and the relationship that people in our society are building with them. While this is not a prominent concept yet, it still is well in development, and many people are turning to robots for answers. To help discuss how we are turning to robots to replace human relationships, Turkle uses several examples of robots throughout the book. One of the firsts she mentions is ELIZA, a robot developed by a colleague of hers at MIT. It was a program that produced dialogue online with a human and acted as a psychotherapist. From this came the term the ELIZA effect, which Turkle describes as a “human complicity in a digital fantasy”, or in simpler terms, a computer putting out human behaviors.

Turkle discusses robots from a psychological standpoint as she traces ways we have created robots to replace human relationships. She states that we have created elaborate ways for robots to replace humans (for example, just three years ago the first responsive, talking sex robot named Roxxxy was invented), and now we are on the road for us to be ready for robots to take the place.

A common example she brings up is robots in nursing homes. The most common robot found in nursing homes is Paro—a therapeutic robot seal that comforts the elderly and responds to their dialogue through movement. What Turkle focuses on with Paro is the reason it has come about. Many who are in nursing homes no longer have family who are willing to take care of them, so Paro provides a companionship that they have lost.

What Turkle concludes is that computers can be understanding with humans, but they understand very little about the human experience. While they can comfort and listen, they do not have feelings. They do not understand what it is like to envy another, or missed a deceased person. But they will listen when someone else does. Robots have created, for the first time, an intense relationship with the inanimate, and they immerse us even more in digital connectivity.