ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that people should take stakeholders' concerns seriously, especially worries about the potential for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to view socially assistive robots as friends. ASD are characterized by early childhood onset impairments of social function, from linguistic disorders, to difficulty recognizing facial and bodily expressions, to problems engaging in eye gaze, imitation, cooperative activities, turn-taking, and joint attention. Robots such as Probo, billed as the "huggable robot friend", are designed specifically for ASD therapy. Economies are interdependent social groups connected by a currency. Learning to function well as an economic agent requires learning how to use money, and how to use it well. Money as a social institution is highly formalized, and learning the "rules" matters, while friendship is highly fluid, and there are few consistent principles to be found. The value of money is capable of being precisely calculated, relative to a wide variety of other goods, including other currencies.
