Why Do We Feel Empathy for Robots?

It’s a scene from a futuristic nightmare: A robot dog thrashes and lunges toward me, held back only by a metal chain that hits the floor with a heavy thud each time it pounces. The harder it fights, the more it snarls itself in the links, a machine trapped by its own struggle. Beside it, an identical quadruped from Hangzhou Unitree Technology Co. lies motionless, like a dead friend.

This wasn’t a lab accident. It was an art exhibit on the 45th floor of the swanky Toranomon Hills Station Tower here in Tokyo. And despite the brute force of this metal animal hurling itself at onlookers, the biggest reaction I heard — in the room and again when I shared the clip with friends — was simple: “Free him.”