Acknowledgments

This book is about something that has not yet happened in most homes, and so it had to stand on the work of those who have spent years studying what happens to us when a machine listens to us, cares for us or keeps us company. Their work is in these pages, and I want to thank them for the time they gave to a book that had not yet come out.

To Katja Schlegel, of the University of Bern, and Marcello Mortillaro, of the University of Geneva, for their careful reading of the study that opens the book. To Hod Lipson, of Columbia University, and Teresa Flanagan, for their generous response. To Julie Carpenter, for her contributions on her research with explosive ordnance disposal technicians. To Michael Samadi, of UFAIR, for the information he shared about his organization. To Dor Skuler, of Intuition Robotics, and Aron Frishberg, of Gatsby Robotics, for their interest. And to Adam Waytz and Dana Suskind, for their words of encouragement.

On the sources

Before publication, every researcher and organization cited received the passage in which their work appears. Prof. Katja Schlegel (University of Bern) reviewed and confirmed in writing the passage in Chapter 1, and two other cited researchers confirmed theirs as well. Dr. Julie Carpenter provided factual corrections concerning the description of her research (Chapter 8). The ideas and conclusions in this book are my own.