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Japanese Robot on Diplomatic Tour

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the strange-ambassadors dept.

baquiano writes "Inaugurating 21st century diplomacy, Japan's Pime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is visiting Prague this week, accompanied by Honda's experimental humanoid robot, Asimo. According to this story, Asimo even attended the official dinner. Apparently, the Czech Prime Minister Spidla has often been criticized because he's too 'stiff' and 'robot-like.'" Uncomfortable moments aside, it's a fitting tribute, for as stated in the story, the Czech writer Karel Capek was the first to use the term robot.

2 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's an ASP Page, most likely the server... by brokencomputer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I find it comical that a post like this will be modded to informitive. The author just states something totally stupid and posts the text of the article.

    --
    The Television Wiki
  2. Re:I wonder what drives the Japanese? by caranha · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Who knows? I'm in a exchange program there right now, and for as much as I was interested in Japan before coming here, I find that the more I learn about its culture, the less I understand about it. :-) (btw, I'm not american either)

    But talking to a friend of mine in the same program, one good trait of these folk seems to be that they're never afraid to try new things, no matter how strange they are, and I'm not talking only about technology. (embracing them after trying is a whole new matter though)

    Anyway, as an interesting sidenote, robotics in eastern asia goes a long way back in time, in a way. In ancient China (~ third century) a great general of the time employed contraceptions in the shape of cows to transport supplies. Maybe those robot making folks are descendants of Zhuge Liang? ;-) (btw are there "robots" more ancient than those anywhere?)

    Claus