As robots become more and more capable and gain the ability to reason, we could imagine a situation where robots would work in the Medicare sector. These robots would have the ability to assess complex events and offer comfort to those that need it, such as those who are depressed. They may one day progress to being considered our friends or even psychologists, leading onto the question of whether you can envision yourself ever wanting or accepting a consolation hug from a robot?
Probably not a physical hug. The robot would have to be really human like othervise hugs wonât work.
But they will know me better than I know myself (they will have huge amount of data about me). They will be perfectly capable to talk to me in a way I really enjoy it. They will be better at it than any other human being. People might stop talking to each other because of that.
Sure, but I imagine having some sort of warming mechanism and soft coverings would make it more consoling/comforting 
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As we cannot remove gender bias from advanced ai, humanoid or virtual, the hugbots gender may be a deciding factorâŠ
Yes of course if its a real hug
I believe there is no need for a robot to have a to realistic look but also not to metallic and cold. Feelings can also be sparked if you have the feeling the robot moves naturally and act somewhat realistic. Not just looking around but showing a kind of genuine interest in something that the robot is looking at for example. Tomany motion can have a counter effect. If the robot is one that has to console you then the best is if it has rather slow and gentle movements. Just because a robot can move it dosent mean he has to show the whole repertoire if you know what I mean.
For me the robot needs to have a realistic movement as I stated above and has to speak very natural to give me the feeling of being able to talk normally with it. I am the type that will ask the robots lots of questions so it will need a good knowledge/information resource. I rather interact with a kind of robo pet unless the humanoid robot is of the charts. My Instincts are a protective and consoling kind rather than to be consoled myself.
Does a hug only have meaning if it comes from someone who cares? If so would you feel differently when robots become conscious or even have the illusion of consciousness?
Define a real hug?
I the meaning is stronger if it is concious. When you dont know if it has conciousness or not and still able to emulate feelings than this wont mather. A good illusion canât be tell apart from the real thing.
I think everyone would prefer a concious robot if we has to choose.
Whatâs with the capital H? Is this the formal hug?
A hug? How about a more sensual encounter? Donât pretend it isnât a thing.
A typo 
This is not something we want to discuss here, the meaning behind the question is an emotive one as in a âconsoling hugâ for example.
No but I can imagine there would be a pretty huge market for a living teddy bear productâŠ
People are very good at anthropomorphizing so especially if the robots are very human like (look, softness, temperature, breath, smell, voice, speech) people might even accept a consolation hug from them.
If you are going to make robots that want to hug people, theyâll be able to tell who doesnât want to hug a robot or even other people, right? Could Sophia do that right now with some minor tweeks?
Given robots are amazing at Rock Paper Scissors, she could probably tell if you needed a hug before you even knew it yourself
Lol @ wandering hug-bot idea because it can tell who needs a hug.
When they become that good at conversation and other soft skills, and they will, I really fear people will stop talking to each other / hug each other⊠some will resist at first but wait a few decades and humanity as we know it ceases to exist.
We will have to merge with them and become one with them as much as possible. Than we will talk to each other on a higher level / deeper / faster⊠the only option to âsort ofâ survive.
