A Chicken In Every Pot, A Robot In Every Home

Palm Addict writes "The New York Times report that "South Korea, the world's most wired country, is rushing to turn what sounds like science fiction into everyday life. The government, which succeeded in getting broadband Internet into 72 percent of all households in the last half decade, has marshaled an army of scientists and business leaders to make robots full members of society.""

Comments

Re:Mr. Roboto

[Anonymous Coward]

"It seems to me that even the smartest robots [spacedaily.com] are still only about as intellectually capable as me and my roommates after a heavy night of drinking." They vomit on the floor, have unprotected sex and post on Slashdot ?

Robots?

[TechnoGuyRob]

This is a very, very, very daring venture, and if South Korea succeeds, I can only congratulate them with all my heart. But, one has to ask; are "robots" ready to enter society? We have been seeing things like ATMs, the internet, and various other technologies exploited over the years, whether for identity theft, spam, etc. If the same thing happens to robots, we could be facing some problems.

But to be honest, after reading the article, I am quite impressed. I did not know this. Take, for example:

Since January, Koreans have been able to watch television broadcasts on cellphones, free, thanks to government-subsidized technology. In April, South Korea will introduce the first nationwide superfast wireless Internet service, called WiBro, eventually making it possible for Koreans to remain online on the go -- at 10 megabits per second, faster than most conventional broadband connections.

I'll come straight out with it. That is very impressive. However, as I have stated before, technology--while helpful--can cause problems as well. I mean, it's great that (from the article) "Two years ago, after the opposition-led National Assembly impeached President Roh Moo Hyun, a consensus began forming on the Internet that the move was politically motivated -- two hours after the vote took place, Mr. Chang said. That quickly led to mass demonstrations," he said. "That kind of thing had never happened in Korea before. Everyone is connected to everyone else, so issues spread very fast and kind of unpredictably." However, then you have incidents like this:

There has been at least one unpredictable side effect: fierce witch hunts. In a case that caused national soul-searching, a woman riding the subway with her dog last year refused to clean up after it defecated in the car. One angry passenger photographed her with a camera-equipped cellphone and later posted the photos. Soon, all of wired South Korea seemed to be on the hunt for "Dog Poop Girl." Several misidentified women were verbally attacked, and finally the woman herself was identified on the Internet and humiliated as the topic of countless online discussions.

Honestly, I think South Korea might be moving a little too fast for its own good. People aren't getting a chance to adapt. But then again, who knows?

"But eventually robots could change how we live in a way we can't predict right now," Mr. Kim said. "It's like the PC. No one ever thought the PC and the Internet would transform our society the way they have."

Re:What we really need to advance robot tech is...

[AeroIllini]

Plus, it would really demoralize the insurgency. They know they can scare us off if they keep killing soldures, but you can never kill enough robots.

Obligatory:

Zapp: You see, the killbots have a preset kill limit; knowing their weakness, I sent wave after wave of my own men at them until they reached their limit and shut down.
Bender: It was a dark day for robotkind. Ahhhh, we can always build more killbots.