Artificial Companions

What will an artificial Companion be like? Who will need them and how much good or harm will they do? Will they change our lives and social habits in the radical way technologies have in the past: just think of trains, phones and television? Will they force changes in the law so that things that are not people will be liable for damages; up till now, it is the case that if a machine goes wrong, it is always the maker or the programmer, or their company, which is at fault. Above all, how many people, with no knowledge of technology at all, such as the old and very young, will want to go about, or sit at home, with a companion that may look like a furry handbag on the sofa, or a rucksack on the back, but which will keep track of their lives by conversation, and be their interface to the rather elusive mysteries we now think of as the Internet or Web.