This YouTube podcast clip captures a conversation in which Whitney Cummings reflects on why people show deep compassion toward robots. She argues robots (and animals) create a safe, non-judging space that allows people to be authentic because robots "don't judge," "don't cheat," and don't trigger past relational wounds. Cummings links this to her work with animals (equine therapy, dog training) and offers a personal lens—growing up in an alcoholic home and identifying as codependent—suggesting human relationships often involve performance and projection, whereas interactions with animals and robots feel more direct and less filtered.
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I have never seen such compassion from a lot of people in my life toward any human animal child, as I have a lot of people in the way they interact with the robot. Because I think there's. I think there's something of. I mean, I was on the robot owner's chat boards for a good eight months. And the main emotional benefit is she's never gonna cheat on you, she's never gonna hurt you, she's never gonna lie to you, she doesn't judge you. I think that robots help people. And this is part of the work I do with animals. Like I do equine therapy and train dogs and stuff, because there is this safe space to be authentic. You're with this being that doesn't care what you do for a living, doesn't care how much money you have, doesn't care who you're dating, doesn't care what you look like, doesn't care if you have cellulite, whatever. You feel safe to be able to truly, you know, be present without being defensive and worrying about eye contact and being triggered by, you know, needing to be perfect and fear of judgment and all that. And robots really can't judge you yet, but they can't judge you. And I think it really puts people at their. At ease and at their most authentic.
Do you think you can have a deep connection with the robot that's not judging, or do you think you can really have a relationship with a robot or a human being that's a safe space, or is it tension, mystery, danger necessary for a deep connection?
I'm gonna speak for myself and say that I grew up in alcoholic home. I identify as a codependent. Talked about this stuff before, but for me, it's very hard to be in a relationship with a human being without feeling like I need to perform in some way or deliver in some way. And I don't know if that's just the people I've been in a relationship with or, or me or my brokenness, but I do think this is gonna sound really negative and pessimistic, but I do think a lot of our relationships are projection and a lot of our relationships are performance. And I don't think I really understood that until I worked with horses. And most communication's human is non verbal, right. I can say like, I love you, but. But you don't think I love you, right? Whereas with animals, it's very direct. It's all physical, it's all energy. I feel like that with robots too. It feels very how I say something doesn't matter. My inflection doesn't really matter. And you thinking that my tone is disrespectful, like you're not filtering it through all of the bad relationships you've been in. You're not filtering it through the way your mom talked to you. You're not getting triggered. I find that, for the most part, people don't always receive things the way that you intend them to or the way intended, and that makes relationships really murky.
