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Why the US Consumer Doesn't Deserve A Decent Robot

SkinnyGuy writes "PC Magazine has up a lengthy look at how differing cultural approaches and expectations for robots are setting the stage for Amercian consumers to miss out on the best robots have to offer. The first paragraph is kind of funny: 'Someday the robots will rise up and kill us all. They'll record our lives, obliterate our privacy, set off nuclear war, and eventually turn on us and eat our brains. If any of this ever did happen, it would serve us right. We, at least American consumers, don't deserve the future that robots really have to offer.'"

4 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sounds like.... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, he's a robot from the past.

    Don't ask, it's complicated.

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    The enemies of Democracy are
  2. Re:Sounds like.... by Apple+Acolyte · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wait a second, Al Gore isn't president.

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    Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
  3. The FA is -1 stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    His point seems to be that Americans are threatened by robots with personality.

    Back up the truck. American's recognize that personality is an unneeded and costly add on for robots. A roomba with a head and arms that walked around and vacuumed my house wouldn't threaten anything other than my banking account. The frisbee shaped roombas already cost too much. There is no way in hell I'm going to pay extra for personality.

    Clue to the author:

    Unless you are building a sex toy, giving a robot human (or animal) shape is expensive and pointless. Don't blame Americans for seeing through this.

  4. Re:Sounds like.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    His al-gore-ithms weren't quite up to the task, I guess.