Perhaps if I had been socialized in the customary way as a child, the company of my peers would not seem so strange. But strangers! To be alone in a crowd of strangers! No Auroran has experienced it, unless they have been to Earth. Even on my tour of the Spacer worlds my contacts were limited to one or two individuals who served as guides.

Robots are-- trusted. From my childhood I have known them as guardians and servants. Some... friends. I was never without Giskard until I left Fastolfe's household. A robot is strong enough to protect a human from any environmental hazard, and-- it is anthropomorphism to say that 'they love us', but it is not inaccurate to say that with individual robots and humans, between a human and their household staff, bonds of understanding are formed. There is a bilateral attachment beyond the functional, a mutual comfort. When I walk with Nadila she knows my habits and I her operation so smoothly that we need fear no misunderstanding; I am safe with her, perfectly safe, and she knows that I am not afraid. It would not be so great a stretch to contextualize it as a friendship, in the emotional support it affords.

[She seems to realize how much she's talking and she shuts up.]