Facebook's virtual friend is the first step in the building of a new future

A science fiction world of humans living like drones in giant leisure hives beckons us – or at least those still young enough to enjoy the revolution

Facebook's 'chatbot' is your new best friend (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

One the face of it, Facebook has come up with a neat little idea to persuade the lonely that they are less lonely than they think they are. The Facebook "chat bot" will, it seems, say hello to you on social media and then, like any true friend would, try to flog you stuff.

In some ways this is a retrograde step, given that we all have so many opportunities to make friends with a real human trying to sell us something, or defraud us – every time we are contacted by a PPI claims firm, or someone claiming to have been “given your details after a recent road traffic accident that wasn't your fault”, or asking us how we might vote in the forthcoming Euro-referendum.

It is difficult to imagine even the most gullible soul mistaking a message from an automaton for the genuine warmth of human companionship. Still, the technology is in its infancy; given a few more decades the “virtual friend” in a virtual reality world may become as much a facet of life as the “virtual office assistant” or “virtual currency” has already become.

Mark Zuckerberg said “chatbots” will enable businesses talk to customers in conversational language without requiring person-to-person communication (AP)

The internet of things, the progress of robotics and the advent of the driverless car might yet bring us the "virtual spouse", able to cook, mend, chauffeur and run errands for their human bosses. A science fiction world of humans living like drones in giant leisure hives beckons us – or at least those still young enough to be able to live to enjoy such a revolution.

As Shakespeare, through Miranda in The Tempest, almost said; “O brave new world, That has such virtual people in’t!”