There is value way beyond the immediate service given in a human to human interaction; we're social animals after all and tend to derive a form of pleasure out

There is value way beyond the immediate service given in a human to human interaction; we're social animals after all and tend to derive a form of pleasure out of "being with others". In the same sense that granny went praying the rosaries Saturday evening before mass, because that also got her the coffee and cake with her friends ahead of that, and the chats afterwards. Just like the person at the till chatting with the cashier, the person talking to the surgery's receptionist (and not just about booking in the doc), or the talk with the pharmacist about how and when best to take the prescription medicine (and since we meet monthly for that anyway ... give me the gossip and the events in town as well) - this used to happen because, quite frankly, "efficient" communication and "efficient" human to human interaction is not what we seek. It'd be rude. And that's where the whole chatbot, AI or no, thing falls a little. No matter how smarmy or even actually helpful that chat thing is, it doesn't shake my hand, won't do me favours, probably not take me to the shops after work, and ask me whether I need help or why I look sad. Nor complement me on my eyes. I don't know; at least in me, the herd animal roars loudly enough that I feel unvalued whenever I am forced to interact non-physically. The distance can be felt. And to me, that is not a "protective distance" but an "excluding" one. Makes me more lonely.