Your Aunt Elda, who is 89 years old and lives on her own in a small apartment, is in declining health. She is at the point where she will soon need full-time professional assistance/care, but she is unable to afford the cost of live-in help. Unfortunately, Aunt Elda has no immediate family members or relatives who are able to provide her with the kind of around-the-clock care she will need or to help with the ?nancial expenses for professional care/assistance.
However, a friend tells you about a robotic companion, ElderBot-designed to assist and serve as a companion to the elderly-that would be able to provide the kind of assistance your aunt will soon require.
Fortunately, you have the money to purchase this robotic companion/care giver for your aunt.
But you have some reservations about whether you can entrust your Aunt's care to this robot.
1. Faced with the dilemma of either being able to do nothing to assist your aunt or providing her with an ElderBot, what would you do?
2. As you deliberate, consider some of the concerns we discussed regarding trust and autonomous machines (in Section 12.5.2).