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TechnOxymoron 2: Hugging Machine

Pradeep Aradhya
3 min readApr 7, 2022

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HuggieBot 3.0

How obsessed with technology and robotics and AI does one have to be to create a hugging machine? Which inhuman funding body funded this misguided research?

The volunteer pay must have been very high to get participants for this inane study. Imagine being asked to submit to this clearly robotic and slow hug. Were the walls closing in mechanically, slowly and inexorably … with a high pitched whine … and suddenly they were to decide if it was a good hug? Bet some of them smelled Bengay waiting for those arms. So what is next? The incredibly delicate and nuanced french kissing SmoochBot?

Notes to self: Probably easier to waft the person with oxytocin than to wait patiently for those slow mechanical arms. Probably easier to have a full body wrap that tightens and releases imitating a hug … like a massage chair. Probably easier to inject a hug record directly into the human’s brain via a brain interface … whatcha say Elon?

The essence of a hug is the contact with other living breathing humans and the consequent feelings of closeness, protection, destressing … and the release of

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Pradeep Aradhya
Pradeep Aradhya

Written by Pradeep Aradhya

Exploring boundaries on culture, business strategy, and technology. Film maker, Kidlit Author, Technologist, Philanthropist, Investor, CEO

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