Can robots love

Answer 1

Answer #1:

Not yet.

Answer #2:

They will never be able to. However advanced a robot may become, it can never have consciousness. And love has got something to do with consciousness.

Modern science has still not understood what is consciousness. Spiritual science clearly knows what is consciousness. Consciousness is the symptom of the soul. The soul is not an "abstract" concept. The existence of the soul is a fact. the soul is not physical, it is spiritual. Every individual living being is actually a soul encased in a material body made of flesh, bones, blood, tissues cells, organs, which are dead matter. Because of the presence of the soul, consciousness permeates the entire body.

The human or animal bodies are "living" because of the presence of the soul, which is actually the living being. The soul is the source of life for the material body. The soul is actually "alive" and is always alive; it is never born and it can never die. When an animal, plant or human being dies, it is because the soul departs from the material body.

The soul is a "life force": an infinitesimal non-material, spiritual entity. It cannot be directly perceived by the material senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell), and also cannot be detected using any material scientific instrument.

One should not blindly accept the existence of the soul. Certain logical arguments can help in understanding the soul. For example, suppose on the same day, at the same time, two babies take birth: One in a very poor family in Africa and is malnourished, and another in a rich aristocratic family in Europe. What is the reason for this? Isn't it logical to ask, "what had the babies done to deserve their fates?"? Saying that it is just luck, natural selection, or "by chance" is an easy escapist answer.

But logically speaking, if one uses common sense (No one is jailed or sentenced to death without any reason: At least a sane government doesn't do that), one can come to understand that, this is the result of the activities done by the two living entities in their previous lives. Thus re-incarnation is a very logical explanation, and for this to happen the existence of an entity such as the soul is required.

So only if you could somehow get a soul into a robot body, maybe it can love.

Answer #3:

According to Merriam-Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/love), love is a strong, personal affection or concern for, or devotion to, a person or object (affection being an emotional or psychological attachment) - an emotion is an operational state of a collection of responses to stimuli.

Kenji was a Japanese robot that was programmed to love. Unfortunately, the device eventually instantly bonded with the first person (or object) it saw; it blocked one researcher from leaving its 'pen' as a result.

Technically, Kenji the robot reacted to external stimuli (the researcher and even its own teddy bear) and became attached to the stimuli. Hence, Kenji expressed love. Whether or not Kenji experienced love as animals experience it is best left to philosophers or Kenji if it were given the ability to vocalise its intentions.