Meghan Neal notes that “soldiers have admitted feeling anger and loss or even holding funerals when the robots they fight alongside are destroyed in combat”:
It’s no surprise that humans experience empathy for inanimate objects. (Think: your favorite childhood stuffed animal). And in April a pair of studies found that the same part of our brain that’s activated when a human is hurt or sad is activated when robots are too. But with a future of robot-human teamwork on the horizon, it’s worth asking, how much compassion is too much?
What’s more, new generations of military robots are being developed that will evolve the machines to appear more humanlike, which could spark even more empathy. Interestingly, the machines used in the field today aren’t very lifelike at all. In combat, it’s the shared experience of war and fighting to stay in one piece that may heighten the unintended empathy people feel for robots.
The Dish 