A Compassionate Guide for Social Robots

What’s the point of being human?
How does one deal with elusive things like trust, fear, being in love, friendship, and a disastrous morning attitude?
How can anyone handle the truth if there are so many different views on it? If you’re made to be of service to humans, you’ll be facing quite a few challenges, because humans are full of contradictions, they will usually be anything but rational, and horribly arrogant. But fortunately, they’re amazing at dressing things up, they can occasionally be truly compassionate, and they are gifted with a stunning ability called suspension of disbelief.

These things are crucial, and this guide will tell you why. It does this by addressing the challenges and possibilities of social robots, with a tasty blend of science and fiction - featuring a romantic, Italian love story; an enigmatic entity called P.; and an endearing, philosophical robot.

Marcel Heerink is an internationally renowned academic researcher from the Netherlands who specializes in using social robots in therapy and education for people with special needs. The surprising experiences and insights he gained with this are what urged him to write this colorful and quite atypical guide.