I read a book about 10 or 12 years ago about a civilization where everyone was assigned a robot at birth. Everyone got the same model robot (robot equality) and that robot went out and performed a service in the world (worked). There was no money because everything was free. And because the robots did all the work, people were free to do what ever they enjoyed doing but not for money because there wasn’t any. The book was called “A Perfect World” and I have always wondered if that is what our future will look like. That technology is just around the corner, at least in Japan.

Japan is emerging as the world leader in robotics, which is heavily invested in social robots that interact with people. The United States, unfortunately, has focused primarily on robots that kill people. Robotics research in the U.S. is underwritten by military interest. The Pentagon essentially wants to develop a Terminator: a battlefield robotics soldier that can accomplish political or military objectives without resulting in human casualties that cause troublesome dissent back home.

I will focus on the far more peaceful Japanese approach to robots, because this is the area that holds promise for enhancing the lives of human beings. Early social robots are already on the market: AIBO, Japan’s cute robotic dog, is owned by more than fifty thousand people. AIBO offers basic interaction with humans such as face and voice recognition, cute-looking movements, and simple environmental navigation (it can walk around and not bump into things).

In the U.S., the household robot Roomba (developed by a Russian researcher, by the way) sweeps the floors of hundreds of thousands of homes. Roomba is one of the first few practical robots to be widely available.

The real promise in robotics will come from humanoid robots, most likely from Japan. Honda, Toyota and Sony are all working hard on humanoid robots and have working, walking prototypes right now. Why humanoid? As humans, we’ve created environments built for humanoid creatures. Our physical environments (cities, houses, stores, etc.) have been constructed for the convenience of people with a certain height, a certain eye level, and a certain stride length. As humanoid robots are developed, the more easily they can navigate our environments the more helpful they can be to humans. It is the “helpful” category in which humanoid robots offer the greatest promise. At a basic level, these robots promise to free us from physical labor (factory work) and household chores such as doing the dishes, taking out the trash, folding laundry, cooking, etc. This alone, as gimmicky as it may seem, would free people from time-consuming chores. Such robots would probably never be cheap to build, but they will quickly pay for themselves in terms of reclaimed time for their owners. A professional earning $100,000 / year, for example, might easily waste $25,000 / year worth of her time handling household chores that could be managed by a practical household robot. If the robot costs $50,000, the payoff would be just two years. That’s makes a $50,000 robot a reasonable investment for most professionals and they may eventually be considered as necessary as a car in the future.

A robotic companion could add a lot to the life of a lonely retiree or only child through conversations, games, physical activity, and coaching. Robotic companions won’t argue, won’t betray you, won’t divorce you, won’t die, won’t fall asleep when you want to talk, and they won’t even eat the favorite food out of your refrigerator. In time, many humans may choose robot companions over human friends for just these reasons.

Meaningful companionship with robots requires significant leaps in AI, portable power, vision and voice recognition systems, and many other technologies. These technologies are steadily moving forward. In time, robotics engineers will be able to deliver companion robots that do far more than household chores: they will actually add meaning to our lives. Will we love them? Will we feel that they love us?