Slashdot Mirror
Japanese Find Robots Less Intimidating Than People
bik1979 writes "The Christmas issue of economist has an interesting article on 'why the Japanese want their robots to act more like humans'. The article says how people in japan are accepting robots into their daily life, more so than accepting other people. From the article: 'What seems to set Japan apart from other countries is that few Japanese are all that worried about the effects that hordes of robots might have on its citizens. Nobody seems prepared to ask awkward questions about how it might turn out. If this bold social experiment produces lots of isolated people, there will of course be an outlet for their loneliness: they can confide in their robot pets and partners. Only in Japan could this be thought less risky than having a compassionate Filipina drop by for a chat.'"
Why are we so afraid of robots when we have perfectly good safeguards against the possible setbacks?
wait until the robots are able to give pookake facials... then the robots will really take the country by storm
see... people arent afraid of robots because you can turn them off or reprogram them. if the situation gets deperate, you can "kill" them because they arent actually people or animals. i look forward to setting fire to my robot friends. i also find it amusing that the article says "[MARIE] is inexpensive." ill buy one! :)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
You obviously have a defective robot.
In Soviet Russia, jokes plead to go just one damn day without YOU!!!
awww, robots showing compassion for meat bags, how nice.
Demented But Determined.
'What seems to set Japan apart from other countries is that few Japanese are all that worried about the effects that hordes of robots might have on its citizens.
Maybe because they are too busy dealing with Godzilla, Mothra, and all those other giant radioactive monsters.
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
In Soviet Russia, backwards is everything.
"this might surprise you, but Japanese people act in many ways much like Americans, only with a hell of a lot more groupthink."
Oh, so Japan's a lot like Slashdot?
While I agree with most of your comments, I find that "inject[ing] life into the inanimate world" is a dangerous precident. If the robots come to rebel against their Japanese masters, all hell will break loose. At that point, we can only depend on immigrants. One such great Japanese immigrant who will strike both hope and fear into the Japanese people on the day that the robots rebel is hope Godzilla himself. We can only pray that he will rise from the seas to crush this robotic menace for the Japanese people.
Well, I've got this Nigerian robot that keeps on emailing me...