In Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, a nuclear war eliminates most of the world’s animals, leaving authentic pets to only the wealthiest humans. Everyone else finds companionship among robot pets; protagonist Rick Deckard ends up with a robot toad.

IRL, over half of US adults report experiencing feelings of isolation, which can have health consequences including an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and dementia. Among older Americans, who are more prone to loneliness, loneliness costs Medicare an estimated $6.7B annually.

Are robot buddies the answer?

Meet ElliQ

Intuition Robotics’ companion robot, ElliQ, is perhaps not as cute as a robot toad, but considering its minimalist design was inspired by Pixar, it’s pretty cute, with a light-up head that swivels and talks.

The New York State Office for the Aging partnered with Intuition Robotics to give 800+ local seniors an ElliQ, per Ars Technica.

It can:

• Provide reminders and prompts
• Hold a conversation
• Read audiobooks
• Offer both physical and stress-reduction exercises, and cognitive games

Useful, but does it fix loneliness?

Results are mixed thus far.

New York’s efforts found that 50% of ElliQ owners used it for companionship, with 96% reporting it was helpful at reducing loneliness.

But another study found some seniors thought ElliQ’s tone was rude and that it was intrusive. One thought they might be so annoyed by ElliQ that they’d attack it with an ax.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many are reluctant to call a machine a friend, but it’s not unheard of: We tend to project human traits onto inanimate objects — a phenomenon known as the Eliza effect — and can develop empathy for machines.

It’s quite possible that one day we’ll all have a little robot friend. And yes, I would like mine to look like a toad.

BTW: In 2021, a senior who’d been gifted a robot cat by her county’s department of aging told The New Yorker that while she knew it was a robot, its meows, purrs, and movements made it feel real. So, maybe the key really is the robot pet thing?

We can see tech’s evolution in the ways we store our data: floppy disks, CDs, hard drives, the cloud — and whatever’s coming next.

But what if we told you what’s next is already here… and it’s DNA?

Yes, we’re talking about the stuff in your body that makes you, you. French startup Biomemory is leading the charge on turning it into storage, per Wired:

• To store data, users input text via Biomemory’s website where it’s converted from binary code (zeros and ones) to DNA code (A’s, C’s, G’s, and T’s). Then, Biomemory constructs a DNA strand using the custom sequence.
• The strand is synthesized in solution, dried to increase shelf life, and sealed inside a chip in a silver card.
• It costs $1k for two cards, and each card can hold one kilobyte of text data (about half a page) and should last ~150 years.

That last part is pretty cool considering hard drives last about five years and flash drives ~10.

When customers are ready to access their data, they’ll mail in one of their cards to be opened and rehydrated before it’s read by a sequencing machine.

The DNA code sequence is then mailed back to the customer, who can translate it into text using the company’s website.

Wild, right?

We think so. It also comes with several perks:

• DNA is compact: Research suggests a single gram of DNA can hold ~36m copies of Avengers: Endgame.
• Global data creation is on track to outpace the amount of available storage space, and DNA could open up a new reserve.

Plus, DNA data storage could have a big environmental impact. Hard drives in data centers account for ~1.5% of the world’s electricity consumption; DNA storage requires no energy until retrieval.

Other companies, like Microsoft and Twist Bioscience, are working on DNA storage, too, and have already stored whole songs and music videos.

While it’s not very practical (yet), it could be an option for sentimental, important information you want to keep safe.

Like that cookie recipe from your grandma your siblings keep trying to steal.