Rise of the robots and all the lonely people | Letters
by Letters from Technology | The Guardian on (#3AME8)
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.
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