Discovering the Emotions: Robots

I came home from my last neighbour’s flat feeling disheartened. I’d now spoken to everyone in the whole building, and I still haven’t found what I was looking for.

“Let’s go to the engineering museum today,” my mum suggested. “You’re looking a bit sad, and that’ll cheer you up. There’s a new exhibition there this week about robots!”

I had to admit that sounded pretty good. My mum knows how much I like stories about robots. So I leapt at the opportunity.

The museum had robots from all over the world. Some just looked like complex machines, but others looked like people — they had heads, arms, legs, and glowing eyes. I went from one robot to another. I couldn’t stop staring at them, they were fascinating.

And they could do all kinds of things! One could play the piano, one could fly around the room, and several knew how to speak!

“HE-LLO. WHAT IS YOUR NAME?” recited the first robot in a tinny, broken voice. “I AM PLEASED TO MEET YOU.”

“What a funny way to talk,” I laughed. “It says everything in the same tone of voice.”

“That’s because it’s a machine, not a person,” said my mum. “It doesn’t have emotions like we humans do.”

I remembered the lady in the playground and how she had told me that without emotions we’d be like robots.

“The robot can talk,” Mum explained, “but it can’t feel joy or sadness. It says it is pleased to meet you, but as you noticed its voice stays the same, it doesn’t sound pleased.”

“I AM PLEASED TO MEET YOU,” the robot announced once more, repeating what it had said a moment ago. It didn’t smile because its mouth couldn’t move — its mouth was just…