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In Japan, Old People Talk to Robots
stupidfoo writes "AFP is reporting that, starting today, "Japan's growing elderly population will be able to buy companionship in the form of a 45-centimeter (18-inch) robot" designed to help them avoid senility. The robot, named Snuggling Ifbot and developed by Dream Supply, will be able to respond to verbal commands. "If a person tells Snuggling Ifbot, "I'm bored today," the robot might respond, "Are you bored? What do you want to do?"". It retails for 576,000 yen (5,600 dollars) and there is no English version currently available but "its makers plan to program the robot in English -- not for export, but to teach the language to Japanese children.""
Should I:
a) Weep for the millions of human tragedies that must have taken place to lead so many to this extreme of loneliness and general patheticness, or...
b) Laugh because it's called 'Snuggling Ifbot'?
Eh, I'll go for b). Hee hee hee... 'snuggling ifbot'... hee hee hee...
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
How will it push anyone down the stairs?
Sounds like a 5600$ version of Eliza.
I don't need a signature.
Great name to go senile with. That's the kind of name I want around when I'm 85 and dribbling, "you seen the snuggling ifbot today son?"
In Japan, sanity is talking to a robot called Snuggly Ifbot :-/
sig under construction...
I am no doctor ether, but I'm aware of the general asumption, with medical proof wich I am not femilliar with, that you can train the brain and that keeping it busy will help not getting senile
in which case I really need to move out of my nice quiet server room and interact with the rest of my office - before one day ............
where am I... why have I got no pants on...
In America, Old people get shot by shotgun toting robots.
Customer: I can't log into my database instance
Support: You can't log into your database instance?
Et cetera...
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If you want something to keep you fit, healthy, happy and not lonely in your old age, why the freakin' hell not just get a freakin' dog already? Granted, the basic out-of-the-box model needs some hardware mods to avoid spawning too many child processes, and you have to update its virus and worm protection every few months. But you should get at least 6 years uptime -- and probably even more from one using generic, commodity parts from a mixture of suppliers.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
"its makers plan to program the robot in English -- not for export, but to teach the language to Japanese children."
Child: Teach me English.
Robot: All your base are belong to us.
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.