With the rise of "Surrogates," if you will. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106976-Hacker-Preparing-Kinect-Controlled-Robot-Army]
Obvious applications are doing work which requires you to actually be there -- manufacturing, some forms of office work, repair work, etc. However, since one can use a robotic avatar to do work at a distance, what's stopping one from using one to run errands and do pretty much everything else, and thus never leave the house? Nothing.
I'm a little perturbed about this -- I actually like being with people -- and I might actually warm up to the idea the way I warmed up to e-books. But why isn't it feasible right this minute, and if (when?) it is, what are possible problems? Reproduction and child-rearing are one possible issue, but are there others? Perhaps I'm a little weird for asking this, but it's been on my mind. I know there are no simple solutions, but still -- a little food for thought here.
EDIT: Corrected link to "Surrogates" Wikipedia page.
Obvious applications are doing work which requires you to actually be there -- manufacturing, some forms of office work, repair work, etc. However, since one can use a robotic avatar to do work at a distance, what's stopping one from using one to run errands and do pretty much everything else, and thus never leave the house? Nothing.
I'm a little perturbed about this -- I actually like being with people -- and I might actually warm up to the idea the way I warmed up to e-books. But why isn't it feasible right this minute, and if (when?) it is, what are possible problems? Reproduction and child-rearing are one possible issue, but are there others? Perhaps I'm a little weird for asking this, but it's been on my mind. I know there are no simple solutions, but still -- a little food for thought here.
EDIT: Corrected link to "Surrogates" Wikipedia page.
