Friends are important to us, and that's one of the things that cements us as a social animal, because we need each other in different phases of life. In addition to that, we need people we can trust and those who share the same ideology as us or have the emotional intelligence to be there for their friends and loved ones. Despite how important friends are, we can't disregard how dangerous humans can be at times and how difficult it is to trust them, because your best friend and confidant is someone else's confidant. So in light of that, if a humanoid robot is created that has the capacity to have emotions like us, would I be willing to have such a friend or not?
Peradventure humanoids robots are made that have emotions and can think and feel like we humans; will I be willing to have such a friend above human friends? Well, the truth is that it's not like I'd like to have them above human friends, because I've got some good amount of wonderful friends, but then, not all are great, and for that reason it won't be bad to have robots with emotions as friends, given the fact that they would have been programmed to give helpful advice that'll help me a lot during different phases of life, and I think it'll actually be nice having such, knowing fully well that their advice won't be filled with envy or hate.
Like I said, humans can't be entirely trusted—not all, though—and those who can't be trusted are those who don't genuinely care about you, so to be on the safer side, I don't mind having a humanoid robot that's emotionally intelligent as a friend. That doesn't mean I'll stop having human friends; like I said, I've got some great and wonderful friends. So it's more like an addition to the friends I already have. Besides, having humanoid friends to me is more like the way I've got only friends, whom, although I don't see, I still appreciate and enjoy their company.
Yes, I understand robots can't be entirely trusted either, especially given the fact that since they have manufacturers, that means they'll have a back end to the information they have access to, and for that reason, one must be very careful about what you tell them. Me having the robot as a friend isn't to make them a deep one but just one that can keep my company and that I can get valuable advice from, because I won't want my every emotion to be made visible to those who created the robot, because their access to our conversation would most likely be like how Facebook and other social media apps have access to all private conversations and the like.
All photos are taken and edited on canva.