Can we design such a robot and promote that level of bonding thru a virtual reality setting or using contrived events to simulate natural human bonding in our culture. I believe we can. I also believe that the strongest bonds in nature of any species seem to be that between a mother and their offspring. To simulate this level of bonding for robotic companions and/or assistants we must specifically program the robot to catch clues from the specific human’s behavior and build upon those. But first we need an initial bonding event that triggers chemical reactions in the brain, which are as strong as those early memories. I propose using a picture of a person’s mother in a family photo, which depicts a pre-memory time period, the photo would contain the subject and the mother. Such a photo would provide an imprinted memory to work with, one which could be simulated with the robot. The robot would replicate the mother’s position in the file photo whether sitting or standing. This would cause the human subject to move to put themselves in the scene in their mind thru a false memory and thus move closer to the robot while their chemicals in their brains recorded over the old memory. A robotic android of the opposite sex may also be a worthy idea to increase bonding as small amounts of casual flirting may add to the chemical bonding of the brain.

In the event a robotic assistant is needed for long-term space flight these things must be considered. Likewise a robotic assistant in a military situation, it would be critical. For future companion robots, scientists and programmers will have to focus on these things in order to prevent hostility between human and machines and eventually between transhumans with robotic parts and full robotic androids. We must think on these issues as the future is becoming closer at a much faster rate then ever before.