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

Re:Uh

[AKnightCowboy]

Yea, I'd rather spend $7.5B colonizing the moon then I would on a robot.

$7.5B wouldn't fund NASA for 6 months, much less colonize the moon.

Re:The US gummint would never fund such a thing

[AtariEric]

Two words: Slave Labor. Robots don't threaten to walk out if working conditions are dangerous.

Re:The Goal and the Problems

[cdn-programmer]

This is basically the same argument that were used when the industrial revolution began and machines started to replace people.

Come to think of it the argument was popular in the 60's and 70's with application to computers and how they would displace so many workers.

IMHO the argument is just as erronous now as it ever has been.