Japan's Proposed 30-Year Robot Program

Gallamine writes "A group of Japanese researchers have proposed a Government plan to spend 50 billion yen per year (that's over 400 million $US) for 30 years on developing a robot with capabilities of a 5-year-old. Japan's current economy may prevent the plan from happening, but the interesting point is the parallels to the U.S. Apollo space program, America's attempt to put a man on the moon. While expensive, the benefits to the American population from that program are probably unmeasurable. Perhaps the U.S. Government should consider funding such a program over here?"

Comments

USD 400 billion?

[netsharc]

Eh, I just checked, and 50 billion Yen equal $US 423 million, not $US 400 billion.

Wow, $US400 billion every year, that would be more than 10% of their total purchasing power (quoting CIA's numbers), and about 90% of their total gross revenue (not yet calculating their expenditure). That would have been some serious fucking spending. But no, they're not spending that many dollars, it's just the story submitter's inability to do math.

50 Billion Yen = 424 Million dollars

[voxelman]

The current (8/20/2003) exchange rate is 118.015 yen to the dollar.