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Robots Entering Daily Life in Japan

Posted by Soulskill on from the come-with-me-if-you-want-some-sushi dept.

USA Today is running a story about the emergence of robots in common aspects of life in Japan. Many simple yet social jobs are being filled by robots of increasing sophistication. The article suggests that Japanese culture is more open to such interaction than the majority of other cultures. Quoting: "For Japan, the robotics revolution is an imperative. With more than a fifth of the population 65 or older, the country is banking on robots to replenish the workforce and care for the elderly. The government estimates the industry could surge from about $5.2 billion in 2006 to $26 billion in 2010 and nearly $70 billion by 2025. Besides financial and technological power, the robot wave is favored by the Japanese mind-set as well. Robots have long been portrayed as friendly helpers in Japanese popular culture, a far cry from the often rebellious and violent machines that often inhabit Western science fiction."

164 comments

  1. Robots are here by BWJones · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Last time I was in Japan, (scroll down for the robot) progress in the Toyota Partner Robot development was truly impressive. They have amazingly smooth, articulated motions, can walk with close to natural gaits and can climb stairs. Robots, whether fully autonomous or semi-autonomous are here to stay in rolls from support like the ones being developed in Japan or for defense/warfare applications like I saw on my recent visit to Creech AFB. I gotta say though, that this robot has got to be one of my favorites and this robot has got to be one of the creepiest.

    --
    Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    1. Re:Robots are here by Jizzbug · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      BWJones,

      Just make sure those robotic eyes and visual cortex neural interfaces are a success. I may need them one day in my late middle-age in case I've inherited retinitis pigmentosa from my grandfather.

      Thank you, Mormons, for superior technology.

      Ever your willing servant,

      DPMoore

      --

      -=/\- Jizzbug -/\=-
    2. Re:Robots are here by BWJones · · Score: 1

      Just make sure those robotic eyes and visual cortex neural interfaces are a success. I may need them one day in my late middle-age in case I've inherited retinitis pigmentosa from my grandfather.

      Thank you, Mormons, for superior technology.

      ??????? What are you talking about? Are you assuming that everyone who lives in Utah is Mormon? ........ That would be a pretty big stretch.

      Ever your willing servant,

      Wanna donate your eyes? :-)

      --
      Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    3. Re:Robots are here by BWJones · · Score: 1

      Just make sure those robotic eyes and visual cortex neural interfaces are a success. I may need them one day in my late middle-age in case I've inherited retinitis pigmentosa from my grandfather.

      Well, we are working on the neural connectivity in the retina itself. Retinal/cortical connectivity is being explored by other groups in our team, but yeah... that (rescuing blindness) is the mission we are all working on.

      --
      Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    4. Re:Robots are here by Jizzbug · · Score: 1

      Thank you, Mormons, for superior technology.

      ??????? What are you talking about? Are you assuming that everyone who lives in Utah is Mormon? ........ That would be a pretty big stretch.

      Everybody who lives in Utah is eventually Mormon?? I know Mormons were among the first religious to adopt Einstein's Relativity because it proved what Joseph Smith was saying about chaotic matter being the foundation of element, and that intelligence was co-eternal with matter, and that matter can neither be created nor destroyed but only organized and re-organized. I also know Mormons at BYU were among the first to use Linux-based supercomputers to collide neutron stars in order to discover new high-energy particles. I also know there are lots of Mormon Joneses.

      But it's cool if you're not a Mormon... ;) I'll still give you my eyes...

      You ask the learned doctors why they say the world was made out of nothing; and they will answer, "Doesn't the Bible say He created the world?" And they infer, from the word create, that it must have been made out of nothing. Now, the word create came from the baurau which does not mean to create out of nothing; it means to organize; the same as a man would organize materials and build a ship. Hence, we infer that God had materials to organize the world out of chaos--chaotic matter, which is element, and in which dwells all the glory. Element had an existence from the time he had. The pure principles of element are principles which can never be destroyed; they may be organized and re-organized, but not destroyed. They had no beginning, and can have no end. . . . [T]he mind of man--the immortal spirit. Where did it come from? All learned men and doctors of divinity say that God created it in the beginning; but it is not so: the very idea lessens man in my estimation. I do not believe the doctrine; I know better. Hear it, all ye ends of the world; for God has told me so . . . We say that God himself is a self-existent being. Who told you so? It is correct enough; but how did it get into your heads? Who told you that man did not exist in like manner upon the same principles? Man does exist upon the same principles. God made a tabernacle and put a spirit into it, and it became a living soul. . . . How does it read in the Hebrew? It does not say in the Hebrew that God created the spirit of man. It says 'God made man out of the earth and put into him Adam's spirit, and so became a living body.' The mind or the intelligence which man possesses is [co-eternal] with God himself. I know that my testimony is true . . . Is it logical to say that the intelligence of spirits is immortal, and yet that it had a beginning? The intelligence of spirits had no beginning, neither will it have an end. That is good logic. That which has a beginning may have an end. There never was a time when there were not spirits; for they are [co-eternal] with our Father in heaven. . . . I take my ring from my finger and liken it unto the mind of man--the immortal part, because it has no beginning. Suppose you cut it in two; then it has a beginning and an end; but join it again, and it continues one eternal round. So with the spirit of man. As the Lord liveth, if it had a beginning, it will have an end. All the fools and learned and wise men from the beginning of creation, who say that the spirit of man had a beginning, prove that it must have an end; and if that doctrine is true, then the doctrine of annihilation would be true. But if I am right, I might with boldness proclaim from the house-tops that God never had the power to create the spirit of man at all. God himself could not create himself. -- Joseph Smith, Jr.
      --

      -=/\- Jizzbug -/\=-
    5. Re:Robots are here by BWJones · · Score: 1

      Everybody who lives in Utah is eventually Mormon

      That would also be a false statement.

      I know Mormons were among the first religious to adopt Einstein's Relativity because it proved what Joseph Smith was saying about chaotic matter being the foundation of element, and that intelligence was co-eternal with matter, and that matter can neither be created nor destroyed but only organized and re-organized.

      Einstein's Theory of Relativity said nothing of the sort.

      I also know Mormons at BYU were among the first to use Linux-based supercomputers to collide neutron stars in order to discover new high-energy particles.

      Ummmm, yeah. So? There are actually lots of good computer scientists down at BYU..... Just not as good as the ones we have up here at the U of U. :-)

      I also know there are lots of Mormon Joneses.

      There are also lots of Joneses that are Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Shintoists, Confucianists, Islamist, atheist, or agnostic. Again, your point is?

      --
      Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    6. Re:Robots are here by Jizzbug · · Score: 1

      I know Mormons were among the first religious to adopt Einstein's Relativity because it proved what Joseph Smith was saying about chaotic matter being the foundation of element, and that intelligence was co-eternal with matter, and that matter can neither be created nor destroyed but only organized and re-organized.
      Einstein's Theory of Relativity said nothing of the sort.
      What's this about E = mc^2? Matter/energy is not created or destroyed, only changes form, etc. Similar enough, I suppose.

      Prior to Einstein, and certainly in Joseph Smith's day, the Scientific Establishment as it then existed was resoundingly Creatio Ex Nihilo. Joseph Smith refuted Creatio Ex Nihilo nearly 100 years before Einstein proved it false. So what if Joseph Smith was another half-a-century ahead of Einstein in also proposing Chaos Theory.

      There are also lots of Joneses that are Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Shintoists, Confucianists, Islamist, atheist, or agnostic. Again, your point is?
      I had no point. I also grew up with some half-black Joneses. So I also know there are lots of those, too!

      But don't trust those Mormons when they tell you that you are lucky to live in Zion, the New Jerusalem... That's in Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri, where I live. ;-)
      --

      -=/\- Jizzbug -/\=-
    7. Re:Robots are here by oceaniv · · Score: 1

      Robots aside your picture are pretty amazing. Who am I kidding, first we're being declared dead by the SSA and now the robots are taking over. It's a conspiracy.

    8. Re:Robots are here by Maavin · · Score: 1

      I'm cool with a robot helping me, but to be honest the girl is creeping me out and I don't know if I can trust her...

      --


      Crivens! I kicked meself in me own heid!
    9. Re:Robots are here by Crazyswedishguy · · Score: 1
      Parent wrote:

      Prior to Einstein, and certainly in Joseph Smith's day, the Scientific Establishment as it then existed was resoundingly Creatio Ex Nihilo. Hmm, it just so happens that the law of conservation of mass was formulated in the 18th century by Antoine Lavoisier, a very famous chemist. There's a quite famous quote by him too... "Rien ne se perd, rien ne se cree, tout se transforme", in English that's roughly "Nothing is lost, nothing is created, all is transformed." As far as Ex-nihilo is concerned, there are some very serious scientific theories that suggest a particle of matter can be created in conjunction with its counterpart of antimatter, essentially from nothing. I am by no means an expert on this matter, so I speculate much further... Here's an interesting quote:

      In modern physics, there is no such thing as "nothing." Even in a perfect vacuum, pairs of virtual particles are constantly being created and destroyed. The existence of these particles is no mathematical fiction. Though they cannot be directly observed, the effects they create are quite real. The assumption that they exist leads to predictions that have been confirmed by experiment to a high degree of accuracy. (Morris, 1990, 25)
      --
      This space up for sale.
    10. Re:Robots are here by jandoedel · · Score: 1

      "collide neutron stars"??? WTF ?! Those things are heavy you know! You need at least a very very very large pickup truck to move them, probably more. Supercomputer may be super, but they are not good at moving stars.

    11. Re:Robots are here by HiThere · · Score: 1

      As I understand it, virtual particles will quickly annihilate each other unless energy is added from outside the system (of the two particles). As such, creation gets split into two pieces: 1) virtual creation, and 2) manifestation, with manifestation requiring the addition of external energy.

      Note that space is dense with virtual pairs that haven't got access to an external source of energy, which is why some approaches to calculating quantum interactions require an infinite number of steps (though only some of the steps are significantly important...so the trick to to drop the steps that don't matter before you bother to calculate them).

      Caution: At physics, I am a dilettante, at best.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  2. Tentacles by Gothmolly · · Score: 5, Funny

    But do they have the necessary tentacles for normal, healthy Japanese sex?

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    1. Re:Tentacles by robzon · · Score: 1

      Why would they need robots for sex? Air sex all the way baby!

      http://youtube.com/watch?v=9WCI3jJ27AI

    2. Re:Tentacles by mikevilla · · Score: 1

      LMAO!

  3. I hate this characterization of the West by MyNameIsFred · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...a far cry from the often rebellious and violent machines that often inhabit Western science fiction...
    This type of statement is frequently used to explain this is why Western society doesn't embrace robots. In my view, this has very little to do with it. Western societies don't embrace robots because most forms of automated interaction have been vastly annoying. Who doesn't love calling a company and getting "Press 3 for customer service" and going thru ten menus before getting a human who can actually help. Who doesn't love help systems on computers that try to figure out what you're doing and help you. "It looks like you're trying to write a letter, may I help?" No! Just stop annoying me. How about voice recognition systems that are iffy at best. No I did not say "Got my first real sex dream, I was 5 at the time." I said, "Got my first real six string, bought it at the five-and-dime." The list goes no. Once more user friendly systems are developed I have no doubt that robots and similar systems will be widely accepted.
    1. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by garett_spencley · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think there is also a fear that robots (like other forms of automation in the past) will slowly "steal" people's jobs.

    2. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by ScrewMaster · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I tend to agree ... and it's not as if Japanese pop culture isn't filled with rebellious and violent material too, machines included. And there've been plenty of Western books and movies that have portrayed robots in a very positive light.

      We also haven't embraced robots in the industrial sector to the extent that the Japanese have, and much of that has to do with the perception of them as human replacements, not because they're rebellious and violent. Honestly, it's the humans that often get rebellious and violent when faced with the prospect of losing their jobs to a machine.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    3. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by Inferger · · Score: 1

      Survival of the fittest.

    4. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed. In fact, how much of Japan's robotic adoption has to do with Japan's intention to fight off immigration? Or, to put it in other words, how much of that has to do with the rampant racism in japanese culture?

    5. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by vertinox · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This type of statement is frequently used to explain this is why Western society doesn't embrace robots.

      It also might explain why western robots in development usually have guns on them. I mean iRobot is the most popular robotics company in the USA but most of their money comes from military contracts and not consumer sales.

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    6. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by Herschel+Cohen · · Score: 1

      I agree with your sentiments, because I too was thinking of useless, automated phone systems that delayed getting the answers I needed just a couple of days ago. What made it so bad, subsequent menu choices were the same as the one I just exited. Many of the current voice activated systems are at best oblivious time wasting foils meant to save companies' money, not to assist those needing a real, knowledgeable response.

      However, I have another reason to doubt the veracity that culture will determine robotic acceptance. Near the last line of the article, the researcher poses the necessity of asking whether their conversation partner is human or a robot. I could not help thinking of the most likely response: "I don't know, does it matter?".

    7. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by jcnnghm · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But if you look at actual robots, like the Roomba, you can see they're pretty readily embraced. I have both a Roomba and a Scooba, and I couldn't be happier with them. I was extremely skeptical when I got the Roomba, but I thought for $149 I could at least try it. Sit it down, press the button, go to work, come home to a clean floor, it doesn't get any easier. I know of at least 4 people that have bought these robots after I did, once they saw mine in action.

      I think that people, as you were saying, are more concerned that the robots won't work well, than that they are dangerous. Once they know somebody with one or see one in action, it becomes a no brainer.

      --
      You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. - Winston Churchill
    8. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by wellingj · · Score: 1

      So that must mean All Americans suck because they want to put food on the table through hard work instead of have a utopian society.

      --
      Money is the root of all evil?
    9. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by hvm2hvm · · Score: 2

      you have a good point. we might just be a link in the chain of evolution. since the planet is probably going to become unsuitable for 'green' life in time, the robots could be the only ones able to survive. maybe this is our purpose all along (that is to create the robots). sure, not a good thing for us, but if the robots do become more intelligent and capable than us, they are a normal step in evolution, hence better for life in general.

      --
      ics
    10. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by bluehairedpete · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Also, in America we already have a large supply of cheap, exploitable labor via illegal Mexican immigrants. Japan's much stiffer immigration laws don't allow for this. As long as robots cost more than 5 bucks an hour, they will never make a dent in America.

    11. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by garett_spencley · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Assuming that you can consider the robots to be "life".

    12. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Western societies don't embrace robots because most forms of automated interaction have been vastly annoying...."It looks like you're trying to write a letter, may I help?" No! Just stop annoying me.

      But one advantage of robots is that you can beat the living shit out of them when they annoy you. Do that with a human, and get locked up. Do it with a robot and you're merely out a satisfying $500.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    13. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by Not_Wiggins · · Score: 4, Insightful

      More likely it is because the West (VERY specifically America) is a litigious society; before any company would introduce autonomous machinery (beyond the most basic that we have today) into the everyday life of Americans, they need to be darn sure that it won't kill/mame/hurt/offend anyone lest they be sued out of existence.

      FP had an excellent link to a snowplowing robot. How long do you think that would be in operation before some kid threw himself under it and the place using the robot to clean the parking lot and the manufacturer of the robot got sued?

      --
      Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a rock.
    14. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by kitsunewarlock · · Score: 1

      Well, actually they did import a large number of Brazilians in the 70s for temporary labor. But a lot stayed and are now ironically a portion of those senior citizens.

      --
      Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
    15. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by MikeBabcock · · Score: 1

      That's a generational issue -- I'd rather deal with a few levels of menus than have to explain to five people in a row what my problem with, each time being forwarded to a different department.

      --
      - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
    16. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by MidnightBrewer · · Score: 1

      Actually, they're working on relaxing the immigration laws in order to help offset the aging population problem.

      --
      "Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
    17. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by hkmarks · · Score: 1

      I think you're right. We're quite happy with the robots we don't see, like manufacturing machines, but the "smart" computers we interact with tend to focus on being idiot-proof rather than personable.

      Pre-recorded messages drive me crazy because they're always played back with the exact same intonation. A computer voice should vary intonation slightly every time it says a particular word. The woman in my phone always asks me "Who would you like to call?" exactly the same way, and it drives me crazy. I've heard "Please place the last item scanned on the scanner and wait" so many times now. I put up with these machines, I even like them, but they are a bit annoying.

      Americans seem to be more willing to turn to animals to care for people. We're happier training a monkey or a dog to do a job than build a robot. Dogs have been part of our lives forever and we like dealing with them. If they fail, well, they're doing their best -- you can't really blame the poor animals. If a robot fails, it's a piece of junk gadget. We have sympathy for animals. Recently it's been found that seniors like robot dogs as much as real ones, though, so that attitude might be changing.

      Astro Boy is still friendlier than Terminator, though, even if he does have a machine gun in his butt.

    18. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      I think this is the true reason, indeed. In the West, the general consensus is that the goal of the technological progress is to improve the society but in Japan, I really had the feeling that the technological progress was the goal and the betterment of society, just a tool or a side effect.

      William Gibson had an interesting take on this. For him, Japan is a future-shocked country. Since the end of world war II, the collective subconscious there is convinced that being at the technological edge is a question of survival.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    19. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      Automated interaction and robotics are two different things.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    20. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by hvm2hvm · · Score: 1

      i think that even computers can be assumed to be alive. they exist because we need them (therefore they have a purpose they fulfill), they can interact with us, they multiply (with our help of course). sure, they aren't aware of this, just as a plant is not aware of what's happening around but is still able to interact with the environment. i predict a future where robots will be the center of life and we are just inspiration to them (new code or something that helps them understand more) just like nature is an inspiration to us.

      --
      ics
    21. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by mdwh2 · · Score: 1

      Who doesn't love calling a company and getting "Press 3 for customer service" and going thru ten menus before getting a human who can actually help.

      I agree the interface is the problem, but it's great when it works - the most obvious example of automated computerised system is over the Internet. I imagine many people now prefer doing things on a web page, rather than having to phone up and speak to some person.

    22. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If your concept of "hard work" is something that could easily be automated, then yes. It's sad that America has a workforce so resistant to automation when it is also the workforce with the most access to retraining. Our community colleges, technical schools, university extension programs, etc. Make being replaced far easier than just about anywhere. And yet, our workforce fights to maintain the jobs of the last century. Fortunately, the problem is taking care of itself as industries like the American auto industry slowly crumble to outside competition that has embraced such automation.

    23. Re:I hate this characterization of the West by wellingj · · Score: 1

      I don't know... I work at a big company that manufactures in the US and they have had a pretty good run since 2000...
      And no it has nothing to do with defense contracts.

      --
      Money is the root of all evil?
  4. Children of Men by Thagg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I thought the most thought provoking movie of last year was Children of Men, about the collapse of society when there are no more children. It was one of those movies where a simple premise is carried to the logical extreme, and it's more than a little depressing.

    But, coincidentally, the next day I saw a demonstration of ASIMO, Honda's self-contained little robot -- and it resonated so well with the movie that it's hard to believe in coincidence anymore.

    The Japanese are already living in that Children of Men world, their birthrate is shockingly low, and they have almost no immigration, so the population is shrinking quickly, especially of young people.

    So, what do the Japanese do? Rather than despair (as they did in England, in the movie) they just build a generation of robots...

    Simplistic, I know.

    --
    I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
    1. Re:Children of Men by Scaba · · Score: 1

      Clearly, they're in denial about the dangers robots pose towards old people.

    2. Re:Children of Men by ucblockhead · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There's a huge difference between few children and no children. The England of the book was despairing because the people new that with no children at all, there was no future and that those alive were just marking time until the eventual death of civilization. Very different for Japan, where there's every reason to expect that Japan will be a major world player for the next 100 years, 200 years, who knows how long? With 135 million people crammed in a country the size of the Japanese mainland, a drop in the population over time may actually improve matters for the people living there and the country as a whole.

      Anyway, the point is that "Children of Men" wasn't about low birth rate. It is about being forced to confront your civilization having no future, and your life having no meaning.

      --
      The cake is a pie
    3. Re:Children of Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What kind of drivel is this? A guy who thinks there's a supernatural connection between watching Children of Men and seeing Asimo the next day is what passes for 'interesting' on Slashdot these days?

      If I were Japanese I'd be pretty fucking insulted about this idiot saying that a) they live in the horrible dystopia depicted in that movie, and b) their children are replaceable by robots.

    4. Re:Children of Men by vertinox · · Score: 1

      Anyway, the point is that "Children of Men" wasn't about low birth rate. It is about being forced to confront your civilization having no future, and your life having no meaning.

      Arguably that premise is horribly flawed. If one takes a view as an atheist, when you die you don't exist so it doesn't really matter if humanity survives one year without you or a billion because having children does not give you immortality as far as existing goes. If one takes a religious view on life, humanity surviving is a moot point because your all in heaven or hell or reincarnated as animals regardless if humanity survives.

      And if you really want to get argumentative about lack of children equaling no future, I would like to point out that the dinosaurs died out because they didn't have a space program and not because of low birthrates. So if you really thought about it, being said and in despair about no more kids is very short sighted because one day we'll be hit by another rock the size of Texas and if not, the sun will someday burn out and the fact we can or cannot reproduce will be a very moot point.

      And even if we survive to colonize the galaxy we will still have to face cosmicological exterminations like "heat death", "big crunch", or the "big rip".

      So unless the humans that come after us (or their AI machines) can figure out a way to work around the laws of physics, I'm pretty sure we are doomed in the long run as it is.

      Now that is truly depressing to think that the universe will be a lifeless someday in the far future. So people boo hooing about not having kids seems kind of pointless when it was highly probable that we would die in some other way in an actual more painful fashion.

      And that is why I could not get into "Children of Men"

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    5. Re:Children of Men by ucblockhead · · Score: 1

      Children of Men wasn't about the logic of the situation. It was about the psychology of how most people would react.

      --
      The cake is a pie
    6. Re:Children of Men by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      Hell, just enjoy the cinematography. It has some truly incredible continuous-shot scenes, regardless of what you think of the rest of the movie.

      --
      Comment of the year
    7. Re:Children of Men by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      That is a recipe for demographic disaster.
      Unfortunately afaict there are only three ways out of that situation:

      1: kill seniors like you mentioned, unacceptable to almost everyones codes of ethics.
      2: strongly encourage (heavilly subsidise) or even force people to have more kids, expensive and may not be effective enough, also would cause a lot of kids born to parents who don't really want them which is IMO a bad thing.
      3: allow lots of immigration, the problem with this approach is that within a few generations most of your population will be immigrant descended. If the immigrants decide to keep thier own culture rather that integrating into yours this means your culture dies out.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  5. Common worries by Subm · · Score: 3, Funny

    A lot of people worry about the risk of robots taking over, like they'll start running the world as robotic overlords.

    Not a problem. If anything goes wrong, just set off a nuclear weapon in the bay. The giant lizards and flying turtles will solve everything.

    The robots seem powerful, but once they've shot off all the missiles that are their fingers, they're mostly harmless.

    1. Re:Common worries by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 1

      To be sure, Japan also killed it's pacifist consitution ... they now seek to train their army again (they have not done so sine WWII).

    2. Re:Common worries by ichigo+2.0 · · Score: 1

      With the Chinese military growing it isn't such a bad idea to strengthen the Japanese military. Especially considering that the US can't afford current levels of military spending as it is, let alone in the future.

  6. And I, for one... by txoof · · Score: 0, Redundant

    And I, for one welcome our new bed-pan-emptying robot overlords.

    --
    This one's tricky. You have to use imaginary numbers, like eleventeen... --Hobbes
  7. Robots are everywhere, but by El+Lobo · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Yes, people seem to be afraid of **androids***(robots with a human shape), but seem to naturally accept other kind of robots. Hmm... let me see: trafic lights, alarm clocks, car soldering machines, etc are more or less complicated robots.

    Interesting, but in Korea, years ago, there was an experiment when trafic lights (or semaphores, whatever) were substituted by an android (a robot police man, showing some Stop and Go signals). The results were very negative. The respect that traficants normally have for ordinary trafic lights was sometimes nearly gone when the android was used... Fear? Disrespect? Whatever...

    --
    It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
    1. Re:Robots are everywhere, but by schnikies79 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I can't find the link at the moment, but I remember a study where humans generally find almost human-like characters revolting. I believe it came out at about the same time as "The Polar Express." I know many people who said the faces were just too creepy and they couldn't watch it.

      It was something along the lines of the brain treating it like a horridly disfigured person.

      --
      Gone!
    2. Re:Robots are everywhere, but by hughperkins · · Score: 3, Informative

      http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=853

    3. Re:Robots are everywhere, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know about avoiding human-like figures, but I would be pretty annoyed if I find that the guy standing in the middle of the road diverting my concentration is just a stupid robot! One thing that comes from learning how to drive is how to gather all the information presented to you. Changing _that_ is much more basic than hating robots.

    4. Re:Robots are everywhere, but by VanessaE · · Score: 1

      Just for those who don't remember, the parent refers to the Uncanny Valley principle. It isn't so much that the brain sees the subject as "disfigured", rather, as the subject's appearance is improved and moved more toward the "realistic" end of the scale, the viewer starts seeing the flaws more readily than that which is "right" and begins to find the subject somewhat distasteful. That is, until you get past some arbitrary threshold, then the subject suddenly looks less disgusting, to the point of being pleasant to look at.

  8. Could they cram in any more stereotypes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I'll never understand the mindset that stereotyping entire countries, and even all of the Western Civilization in this case, is a rational thing to do.

    1. Re:Could they cram in any more stereotypes? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal. (Robert A. Heinlein, Assignment in Eternity 1953)

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  9. It's much more about cheap labor. by HornWumpus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If Japan had a Mexico on its southern borders they wouldn't be working on robots so much ether.

    Give NAFTA another ten years and we will need robots for lots of stoop work as well. It's already starting with crop work (Grape harvesting is switching over to robots as we speak).

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    1. Re:It's much more about cheap labor. by Joren · · Score: 1

      They have China, which causes similar controversies to what the Mexican immigrant issue carries in the U.S.. However, there are a lot more barriers to the Chinese entering Japan as workers (such as there being no common land border). Their community in Japan is much smaller proportionally than the community of Mexicans in America. Wikipedia knows more: Chinese People in Japan -- Joren

      --
      -- Joren
    2. Re:It's much more about cheap labor. by couchslug · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Machines are great for removing the need for stoop labor and the suffering that goes with it.

      Note how efficient coal mining has become. Instead of many peons with picks and shovels (and a miner death rate like Chinas) we have a few skilled workers and many machines for both open and underground mining. There is every reason to remove people from the job except as supervisors.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    3. Re:It's much more about cheap labor. by houghi · · Score: 1

      Give it 10 more years and we can't affort to waste the energy on robots.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    4. Re:It's much more about cheap labor. by trenien · · Score: 1
      Actually, Japan kind of does with China.

      The thing is that Japan is a mostly homogeneous society, and quite a lot of people would like to keep it that way. Having robots is their only chance to do that, as the alternative is to admit a much greater flow of immigrants which, in turn, would mean saying bye bye to homogeneity.

    5. Re:It's much more about cheap labor. by tsotha · · Score: 1

      This is silly. Japan doesn't have Mexico, but they do have China, the Philippines, and Indonesia, which together have ten times the population of Mexico and far less money per capita.

      The Japanese don't have immigrants because they don't want immigrants, whereas the US contains powerful business and social interests intent on as much immigration as possible.

    6. Re:It's much more about cheap labor. by BlueQuark · · Score: 1

      Are you kidding?

      I don't even know where to begin with this. BUT Japanese corporate interests, which are even more powerful within the halls of
      government over here, LOVE cheap foreign labor. They just pressure and sponsor politicians who like to blame foreigners for
      everything over here, so that the foreigners have little say or any kind of power. At least the factory workers and farm labor.

      At least this is what it looks like here on the ground.

    7. Re:It's much more about cheap labor. by soccer_Dude88888 · · Score: 0

      don't forget that they have China not far from the west...

    8. Re:It's much more about cheap labor. by Chris+Pimlott · · Score: 1

      If Japan had a Mexico on its southern borders they wouldn't be working on robots so much ether. While having a large land border is certainly conducive to immigration, there's plenty of low-cost labor in Japan's region of the world. You know, all those guys who make our sneakers and ipods and walmart stockables. But Japan has made a choice as a society to impose strict immigration restrictions to keep them out of their country. It's not an accident.
    9. Re:It's much more about cheap labor. by tsotha · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure I accept your contention Japanese corporate interests are more powerful relative to their respective government. Here in the US a pretty solid 70% of Americans want to see illegal immigration stopped, and yet the government makes almost no effort to stop it.

      In Japan, the corporate interests may love cheap foreign labor, but they don't seem to have much success actually importing it in substantial numbers. According to the CIA World Factbook, Japan is 98.5% ethnic Japanese and has a 0% net migration.

  10. Four words by call-me-kenneth · · Score: 4, Funny

    Crush the fleshy ones!

  11. Obligatory by Strange+Quark+Star · · Score: 1

    Japan, for one, welcomes their new social robot overlords.

    --
    There is no sig.
  12. Those Japanese birth rates by Cathoderoytube · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I may be a bit cynical but I think the main reason robots haven't caught on in a lot of places outside of Japan is because our birth rates are still good. I've seen the videos of the robot nurse, and the robotic home care worker. It's extremely off putting. These are jobs in every other country humans are doing. And there's a thousand reasons why humans should always do jobs like that. Same goes for any other job that humans normally do. If they don't have people to replace the existing work force they should consider why there aren't any people and perhaps try to remedy that. I mean it's not like making more humans is any sort of chore.

    --
    I have nothing compelling to say
    1. Re:Those Japanese birth rates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What are you saying? The Japan should import its health workers from the third world like the rest of the developed world does, leaving the third world with even worse health problems than it already has?

    2. Re:Those Japanese birth rates by Cathoderoytube · · Score: 1

      Hey coward, I guess you're worried that I may make some sort of reply that would make your slippery slope argument look stupid.
      So here it is.

      I didn't say Japan should import health care workers. I said they should make more humans. I.e. Have sex with one another for the purpose of procreation, thus raising the population and filling the empty jobs. That's completely different from the idiocy you're pissing about.

      --
      I have nothing compelling to say
    3. Re:Those Japanese birth rates by psychodelicacy · · Score: 1

      "there's a thousand reasons why humans should always do jobs like that"... I'm not entirely convinced by this. If we can develop robots that can perform te simple care tasks efficiently and well, we cut down on the risk of infection posed by human skin, hair, fingernails, and clothing. We also cut down on the impatience towards and mistreatment of vulnerable patients which is so often found, at least in the British health system - see this speech by a member of the House of Lords for one perspective on the health service here.

      I'm not saying that humans are incapable of doing these jobs, or that all (or even a majority of) care workers are lazy or impatient. But the risks of infection and death which abound in healthcare settings suggest to me that developing machines that can do these jobs well could provide serious and life-saving improvements.

      --
      A closed mouth gathers no foot.
    4. Re:Those Japanese birth rates by a+whoabot · · Score: 1

      How would you make them have more kids? Turn them into Mormons? I'm sure they're having plenty of sex, they're also having plenty of birth control applications.

      "I mean it's not like making more humans is any sort of chore." Huh? Yes, having sex isn't a chore. How about raising a kid for 17, nay, 22 years? Sound like fun? Scarcely anyone has kids intentionally nowadays excepting followers of certain Middle Eastern religions and racists. Not many Muslims or Christians in Japan, but a significant chunk of the population are racist (oh, sorry, "ethnocentric"): but then they only have half of a replacement fertility rate. So maybe scratch the idea of turning them into Mormons, your best bet is to turn the other half into racists: only problem then is that they'll likely want Manchuria and Taiwan back for their surplus population.

    5. Re:Those Japanese birth rates by couchslug · · Score: 1

      "I mean it's not like making more humans is any sort of chore."

      Raising them for 18 years is a huge chore, which involves subordinating your life to theirs.
      No thanks!

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    6. Re:Those Japanese birth rates by gullevek · · Score: 2, Insightful

      thats not true, there is just a small group ho is "ethnocentric". I live here for more than fives years and have not yet had direct contact with any of those "ethnocentric" groups. all Japs I met were absolutely friendly and open to foreigners.

      Do you also believe all Germans are Nazis, all Muslims are Terrorists and all Americans are just fat and dumb?

      --
      "Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
    7. Re:Those Japanese birth rates by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 1

      It's not like the human population isn't putting strains on the world's resources, either.

    8. Re:Those Japanese birth rates by kumanopuusan · · Score: 1

      thats not true, there is just a small group ho is "ethnocentric". I live here for more than fives years and have not yet had direct contact with any of those "ethnocentric" groups. all Japs I met were absolutely friendly and open to foreigners.
      The parent either lives with his eyes (and ears) closed or is just plain trolling. Anyone who's spent more than a day or two in a Japanese city has heard the ultra-nationalists in their vans blaring music that sounds pre-1950's. But beyond that, people are openly racist is a way that would draw gasps and demands for political correctness training in America. They aren't what Americans might imagine as hate-filled bigots, but they openly discuss traits they perceive to be common to certain nationalities or races. They wouldn't think twice about (for instance) not hiring someone because of their race (or nationality, or age or sex or orientation). Often job applications require a photo along with the applicant's resume.
      --
      Use of the words "good", "bad" or "evil" is almost invariably the result of oversimplification.
    9. Re:Those Japanese birth rates by gullevek · · Score: 1

      So 10 or 20 people in their vans are 134 million japanese? Please, thats just wrong. We have ultra-nationalists in my country too (Austria) but that doesn't mean that everybody is like that.

      And every company can hire whom they want. Why should they be forced to hire a certain person because he is just ... a certain ethnic minority? Thats typical over PC from america, everything has to be so over PC that nothing works at the moment and you are scared to do anything.

      Still I haven't had any racist incident in Japan, wherever I went. Might be just me, that behaves correctly and not like a bloody stupid loud foreigner ...

      --
      "Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
  13. Finally! by initialE · · Score: 1

    Now there has to be a ministry in charge of Gundam!

    --
    Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
  14. Like in the west? by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 0, Troll

    The west 'solved' it with immigration. Tell me, how long did those riots last in France?

    How many bombs have been set-off by this solution?

    Until japan gets the first downtown areas that are no-go areas with out of control robots, or get to deal with robot terrorists, who are we to say there way is wrong.

    Their country, their way of dealing with lifes problems.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  15. Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by freedom_india · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The extremes to which Japan goes to avoid importing foreigners speaks of its paranoia and deep hatred of non-japanese.
    No other society would spend so much money and effort to build Robots to replace an ageing population.
    Not even Germany is such introverted or had so much hatred in-built.

    I remember reading somewhere:
    1. France is the country with most restrictive laws on migration, yet is most lenient when it comes to accomodating foreigners.
    2. Japan has the most open laws in books to allow migration, yet its officialdom is the most restrictive in implementing it.

    Probably because unlike Reich, the Imperial Japanese military never was defeated wholly in their heartland. Instead they surrendered voluntarily thus allowing them to keep their introverted practices.

    Japan still has shops, stores, etc., that do not service foreigners (especially the adult shops as my friend can testify).
    And they STILL do not speak English beyond Tokyo.

    I welcome the slow decline and ultimate disappearance of japanese society as a whole.

    --
    "Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
    1. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by psychodelicacy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I see all the anti-Japanese comments on this post, and it makes me wonder whether the Japanese are wrong to be wary of foreigners...

      I find it sad that you take not speaking English as some kind of black mark. You'll find that most Americans and British people speak nothing other than their own language. Why should the Japanese, if they would rather not? Other countries are not there simply to service the needs of English-speaking tourists, and if you'd ever seen what a group of Englishmen in a sex shop looks like, you might sympathise with the Japanese for wanting to keep them out!

      --
      A closed mouth gathers no foot.
    2. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by jagdish · · Score: 1

      I think it was Gandhi who said "No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive."

    3. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by crossmr · · Score: 1

      They should be wary of foreigners.

      Some people hold the US up as a model of immigration but I see them quickly shutting their doors. Sure you can move there as a foreigner, but the people already living there will treat you like garbage. They might not let you in their sex shops, but they probably don't harass you up and down the streets and hurl insults at you, racism is still alive and well in the US, especially if you have an accent. I can tell you which one of those I think is worse.

      Luckily for some tourists unless you're visiting small town USA you can find some part of the city that is asian town, german town, etc..etc..

    4. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by tsotha · · Score: 1

      I don't know why attempts to preserve one's own culture are seen by others as "paranoia and deep hatred of foreigners". Does the fact I lock my door at night speak of my "paranoia and deep hatred" of people who don't live in my house?

      It seems pretty reasonable to me Japanese people would want to speak the Japanese language. To have some predictability in relations with other people due to a common culture.

      Personally, I think future generations of Americans and Europeans will curse this generation for saddling them with a bunch of hostile cultures trying in vain to live together in harmony. This multi-culti crap was supposed to be "It's a Small World", but in reality the Western world is turning into Lebanon writ large. Kudos to the Japanese for rejecting the great stupidity of our age.

    5. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by Loke+the+Dog · · Score: 1

      For some reason, you have been modded troll, but I can't see why. Japan is rarely critizised in the west, but this is one of the points where it deserves critique. If Japan keeps up with this attitude, they will eventually be overtaken by more progressive countries. I can't say I welcome the slow decline of japanese society, but I definately forsee it. Amazingly, they Japanese also seem to do this, but they turn to robot instead of the obvious and simple solution.

    6. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by kamapuaa · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Everything the guy was saying was, in fact, pretty much on-point. And frankly it is a little strange for a country where the economy is so thoroughly dependent on exports to be so throughly bad at English. It's not English-language chauvinism, it's just the way the modern world economy works.

      Japan will also claim hotels are full when they're obviously not, policemen give passport checks to foreigners just walking down the street - I live in China and would never claim it's an immigrant paradise, but people's attitudes and the government's implemented policies are far, far more accommodating than Japan's.

      Quite frankly something is wrong with a society that would rather build fanciful robots than allow other ethnicities to naturalize. A little criticism of Japan is just going to come in naturally to the discussion.

      --
      Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    7. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by freedom_india · · Score: 1

      I don't know why attempts to preserve one's own culture are seen by others as "paranoia and deep hatred of foreigners". No. But when shopkeepers drive you away from their shops, and school children keep poking to make sure your son too is a human being does.

      It seems pretty reasonable to me Japanese people would want to speak the Japanese language It goes beyond that. Imagine a culture which teaches (still!) that japanese are human beings and others are Untermenchen. Yeah, japan's schools still teach it.

      Kudos to the Japanese for rejecting the great stupidity of our age. The joke is on them. In 100 years, the whole country would be ruled by robots.
      --
      "Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
    8. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by freedom_india · · Score: 3, Interesting

      racism is still alive and well in the US, especially if you have an accent WRONG ! WRONG !
      I have been to large cities (Boston, Hartford, NYC, SF) in US, worked there, and also stayed in small towns (Keene[NH], New Britain[CT], MA, TX) etc.
      Not ONCE did i find even a trace of racism being shown by anybody (from my co-workers to the cops who stopped me because one of my headlights was not working).
      The only time i was shouted upon was at the DMV in New Britain, CT when my hearing was bad due to a cold when they called out my last name for license. (i use first name and last name never entered my mind).
      Not just officialdom: I have chatted with my taxi driver (a college student) everyday (Keene, NH), discussed movies (The Village was a bad movie) with Stop&Shop clerks (cashing a TC), long discussion with cops (lost my way and stopped a cop-:)) on best ways to avoid a ticket, Museum curators on whether Edison would be crucified if born today, etc.
      I have also attended bachelor parties, SOX games, etc., with my hosts one time.

      In fact, i prefer US more than i prefer Australia (which is to say a lot).

      The model in US is simple: You are considered good and trusted unless you prove otherwise. If you do not betray the trust or work hard enough, Americans trust you more than others.
      Of course if you screw up, you don't get a second chance. Which is acceptable.

      In Japan, even if you are twice as good as they are (Am good in software design: Twice as good as any japanese.) they neither treat you as a human nor treat you like one of the boys.
      --
      "Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
    9. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by crossmr · · Score: 1


      I have a ton of foreign friends studying in the US. They all tell me the same thing. Nothing but random racism. Towards them and their friends, other foreign classmates, etc Your experience isn't indicative of the norm as far as I can tell.

    10. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by freedom_india · · Score: 2, Insightful

      policemen give passport checks to foreigners just walking down the street Exactly what happened to my friend's son at School.
      US cops may use Tasers, but they treat all people the same.
      Japanese have a siege mentality. They think if they let the guard down even once, the world's population would swamp them.
      The world "alien" in japanese also is a bad word.

      I live in China and would never claim it's an immigrant paradise, but people's attitudes and the government's implemented policies are far, far more accommodating than Japan's True. I visited china last year when my bank sent me for training.
      I found them far more accomodating. I appreciated their culture, visited their museums, and generally found them polite and nice, although their English accent is difficult to understand.
      And their cops don't randomly stop you.
      --
      "Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
    11. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by freedom_india · · Score: 1

      random racism What the hell does that mean?
      Random Racism Is that even a word?
      If your friends think hazing is racism, then they obviously haven't studied in Germany or Japan.

      --
      "Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
    12. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by crossmr · · Score: 1

      Random racism would be racism that has no purpose. Just hurled at anyone who is different.
      maybe you make too many assumptions. Your experience isn't the norm, nor is the US as shiny and wonderful as you want to hold it up to be.

    13. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you, there's not enough people willing to take a public stance in favor of racism, and claims that America is on its way towards a race war have been drastically under-represented ever since Charles Manson sullied the whole idea.

    14. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you for real? Where do you live? In California universities the idea of constant "random racism" to foreigners strikes me as a bit of a joke, like the idea that every American has a gun and eats and McDonald's for 3 meals a day. But maybe if you live in a very poor rural area in a flyover state, it's true - I wouldn't know as I'd never go to a really poor rural area :).

    15. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're mistaken. That's not racism, that's school. Everybody hates everybody else there -- even the perfectly white, native American guys there get picked on by other people.

    16. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 1

      How does this racist crap get modded up? Troll are supposed to be modded down.

    17. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by tsotha · · Score: 1

      No. But when shopkeepers drive you away from their shops, and school children keep poking to make sure your son too is a human being does.

      I've had many (caucasian) friends go to Japan, and none of them reported the problems you describe. Do you have three eyes or something?

      The joke is on them. In 100 years, the whole country would be ruled by robots.
      I doubt it. It doesn't take long for a detemined subpopulation to tip the demographic scales back in the positive direction. A Mormon friend of mine had more than forty grandchildren at the age of 55. In a hundred years Japan will have more people than it does today, it's just that those people will be descended from a relatively small subset of the current population.
    18. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by freedom_india · · Score: 1

      racist crap Have you ever been to Japan?
      Have you ever tried to be friends with a Japanese family?
      Try that and then come back to slashdot.
      --
      "Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
    19. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by CopaceticOpus · · Score: 1

      Am good in software design: Twice as good as any japanese.
      If this is your attitude, I wouldn't expect people in Japan to treat you very well.
    20. Re:Shows the deep-seated hatred of foreigners.... by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 1

      So all Japanese are exactly the same? And your customs are better then theirs? Perhaps it's you who is wrong with your lack of respect for other peoples way of life? In my experience, people who can't stand other people's culture usually do it because they have their own personal problems, and other cultures -- especially when not understood properly -- bring out their insecurities. This often develops in to racism. The fact that you are in denial about it just seems to confirm it.

      One thing is for sure, I'm not sure I'd want to be around you, either, and I'm not even Japanese!

  16. Japan has it right; The rest of the west is by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Interesting

    screwing itself. Look, America, and shortly European, jobs have migrated to China. Why? Because they have the yuan tied to the dollar. If we had a president with backbone, they would do something about it. It remains to be seen what will happen with the next one.

    But in the mean time, the west would do well to create loads of automated jobs. It would also help solve such issues as illegal aliens in America. But the only way to go back to creating wealth here is to have honest cheap energy and automation on construction, agriculture and manufactuering. And that is VERY needed by EU as well as Canada.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:Japan has it right; The rest of the west is by F�an�ro · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Look, America, and shortly European, jobs have migrated to China. Why? Because they have the yuan tied to the dollar. If we had a president with backbone, they would do something about it.

      Dude, it is their currency, they can tie it to whatever arbitrary value they want. What is a president to do, tie the dollar to half the value of the yuan in revenge? Or double the value? Or simply invade?
    2. Re:Japan has it right; The rest of the west is by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Dude, the dollar is our currency. We simply say that MFN is off. Once that changes, then no matter what the chinese do, we can put the clamps down further. It is far better that if we are going to trade that it be on even ground.

      As to the dollar-yuan, china is the ONLY large country that does not allow their currency to trade freely. Right now, it is about 7 yuans to the dollar. If they allowed true free trade, then it would drop to about 2 yuans / dollar. But the important one is that all other currencies would be in much better shape. Right now, China has the edge on ALL countries because of this lock in. Keep in mind that nearly all countries who do not allow free trade on their currency have it locked to the dollar. And right now, CHina makes it VERY expensive for anybody to import to china.

      And yes, if china will not allow true free trade, I think that we simply say that one dollar is worth 1 yuan. At that point, China will reconsider.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    3. Re:Japan has it right; The rest of the west is by F�an�ro · · Score: 1

      What a country does with its currency is their business. The US would have been rightly upset if another country had forced them to abandon the gold standard when they had it, or forced them to keep it when they abandoned it. The US government did what they thougth was best for them, and so does china.

      So if china says the yuan is worth the same as 7 dollars, or 3 pesos, or 10 bananas, and if they have to means to guarantee that value, that is their right, and it does not matter whether the dollar is "your" currency or the bananas are from argentinia.
      No one is forcing you to accept yuans.

      I just do not understand this attitude of yours, that the president should "do something" about the internal politics of another country. Sadly, the current president shares this attitude.

    4. Re:Japan has it right; The rest of the west is by WindBourne · · Score: 2, Informative

      It is real simple. If china wants to peg it to ours so that it undercuts true free trade, then we should simply quite trading. It will hurt for a bit of time, but I believe that we will find other nations that are better suited to this. In particular, Mexico has true free trade, and even India is mostly there (they play games to get jobs located there, but the money is freely traded).

      Actually, W. does not share my attitude. He would have done something about it. Fortunately, Obama and McCain both share it, and I think that one of them are going to be next. I am not certain what HRC thinks about this.

      BTW, the yuan is 7 to a dollar. If traded freely, it would be about 2/1 (and dropping). That means that we would be able to export to them a great deal more. It would also help a large number of latin countries since most are using the dollar or pegged to the dollar.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    5. Re:Japan has it right; The rest of the west is by F�an�ro · · Score: 1

      It would also help a large number of latin countries since most are using the dollar or pegged to the dollar.

      So it is ok for them to do so, but not for China?

      China might as well turn back the blame and claim the US is actively keeping the dollar in free-fall to undercut trade with the rest of the world.

      And of course all this would not even be an issue if the dollar was not falling like a rock.
  17. ComputerLiebe by ancient_kings · · Score: 0

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P7dGfDxfe8 I really need a rendezvous.

  18. Let's hope for them they are not US robots by kanweg · · Score: 2, Funny


    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/18/dalek_fcs_uav_ducted_fan_war_robot/

    http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9757072-7.html

    But perhaps that's better than being poisoned by chinese robots.

    Bert

  19. You need to take a short, unpleasant trip ... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

    To the the Uncanny Valley. The term attributed to a Japanese robotics roboticist. With help from Sigmund Freud and a few other folks of similar persuasion.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    1. Re:You need to take a short, unpleasant trip ... by glwtta · · Score: 4, Funny

      Japanese robotics roboticist

      Impressive, that's actually one of the most popular kinds of roboticists.

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
    2. Re:You need to take a short, unpleasant trip ... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      How in hell did I do that? Preview needs to be in a bigger font, methinks. Perhaps blinking. Maybe I should just go to sleep.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    3. Re:You need to take a short, unpleasant trip ... by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      The best description I can come up with for how that robot looks to me is that it looks like like micheal jackson did later in life (which some suspected was the result of too much plastic surgury though according to wikipedia he denies such claims).

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  20. Bad Idea by Jubetas · · Score: 3, Funny

    banking on robots to replenish the workforce and care for the elderly. I think we all know that the robots will simply attack the people they're supposed to be caring for to steal their precious medicine and fuel their enraged power cells.

  21. It's because we don't tax machine labour by Colin+Smith · · Score: 1

    But we're quite happy to tax human work.

    --
    Deleted
    1. Re:It's because we don't tax machine labour by ichigo+2.0 · · Score: 1

      The day we start taxing robots is the day we start paying them. Until then, enjoy the non-sentient slave labour.

  22. Meet George Jetson by bussdriver · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A cartoon for kids; the Flitnstones of the future helped promote robots and bring up issues to vast numbers of children in the west.

    Jetson's job: To press a button and turn on the computer everyday.

    Sometimes Jetson helps the computer make a decision, but one never gets the impression the computer actually needs his help; its like it is humoring him.

    Jobs in that future world have been reduced to repair, office politics (including corporate espionage,) meaningless filler positions (like those created for a relative.) People consume but don't really produce anything.

    Q: Don't the robots do work that americans will not do? You know, like the illegals do now? So then... do we have illegal automation problems coming our way?
    (I realize that part of the immigrant debate is a false dilemma.)

    --
    Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
  23. politeness, restraint, and deference to authority by m0llusk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In America or Europe if a worker no longer serves the bottom line they are likely to be quickly discarded. Though they might seek other positions in the company, even training is likely to be their responsibility to have in order in advance. From hiring to firing the relationship will lack compassion and no one bows. Similar rules extend to family where a historically extreme level of independence is becoming the norm. People must find a way for themselves to get by.

    In Japan employees or relations might find their roles changing to respond to circumstance, but leaving the group is typically a last resort. There from meeting to parting everyone bows to each other. People must find a place for themselves in a group.

    In typical American or European conditions robots embody the cold displacement that all must fear. Robots become implacable competitors in almost any setting. Japanese social networks welcome the robots in part because they do not suffer the same endemic fear of rejection and displacement. Robots are suited to tasks that are difficult or not valued enough for people, so they are easily seen as cooperative.

  24. Lessons from the answering machine by John+Jorsett · · Score: 1

    I recall when answering machines first appeared. People absolutely hated them. I had a number of friends who'd refuse to leave a message on one, yet, in 5 years, every one of them had an answering machine themselves. I think the tipping point came when people couldn't get thru and, annoyed, started asking them why they didn't have a machine.

    When technologies like this hit a certain level of saturation, people adopt them or end up being cultural pariahs, and I think robots will be no different.

    1. Re:Lessons from the answering machine by hitmark · · Score: 2, Insightful

      meh, just get a mobile phone that shows unanswered numbers (or whatever name its attached to in contacts).

      i still just hang up if i hit a answering machine, as more often then not the only message for it to deliver is "call me"...

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
    2. Re:Lessons from the answering machine by Stiletto · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think the acceptance of answering machines has more to do with society's growing narcissistic belief that you must be "reachable" at all times.

      I, for one, do not have an answering machine or use voice mail, and I generally won't leave a message for someone if the call doesn't go thorough.

  25. is this the same japan by crossmr · · Score: 1

    " Robots have long been portrayed as friendly helpers in Japanese popular culture, a far cry from the often rebellious and violent machines that often inhabit Western science fiction."

    isn't it a prerequisite for every anime every made to contain some kind of giant fighting robot?

    1. Re:is this the same japan by crunzh · · Score: 1

      Yes, but they often help the heroes. A big difference.

      --
      Visit http://www.crunzh.com/ for free software. Mac/Lin/Win
    2. Re:is this the same japan by crossmr · · Score: 1

      but usually against giant robots being used by the villain..so not much of a difference.
      Last I checked Johnny Five wasn't evil and megatron was.

  26. Don't forget their military! by BobSixtyFour · · Score: 2, Funny

    They probably have an underground cave full of robotic GUNDAM Mobile Suits.

  27. US progressing on robot soldiers by peter303 · · Score: 1

    The USA has robot-tanks that can drive through cities without flattening buildings. The USA has "smart planes or bombs" that can supposedly kill the bad guy in one bedroom without hurting the people in the adjacent bedroom.

    "Make war, not love"

    1. Re:US progressing on robot soldiers by HiThere · · Score: 1

      And if you believe that "pin point precision" PR, I've got a bridge you might be interested in...

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  28. Slave labor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The example of the cotton gin comes to mind... especially given the etymology of "robot".

    Somehow I had thought that in school, they taught that the gin made slaves unnecessary, seems the reverse was so according to the above source (and Wikipedia).

    So, the illegal immigrants are replaced by hordes of low-paid IT personnel servicing the robots? I guess the analogy breaks down because the operation of the cotton gin wasn't a skilled task, whereas robots are by definition autonomous, and the design and maintenance of both would be handled presumably by fewer, skilled individuals. I heave a selfish sigh of relief.

    Whether any replacement of humans by robots is an improvement or not is a different question. The real problem seems to be that people pay as little as possible, not that there aren't enough people (or technology).

  29. Anime has predicted this by DA_MAN_DA_MYTH · · Score: 1

    In the form of Roujin Z.

    --
    "It takes many nails to build a crib, but one screw to fill it."
    1. Re:Anime has predicted this by Aegis+Runestone · · Score: 1

      Dang it! I was going to say something like that! :P

      Ever since Macross, you knew it was going to happen.

      I hope this means that they can develop real Veritechs, soon.

      --
      -Aegis Runestone-
  30. Obligatory... by finalnight · · Score: 1

    Now we just need to find a whiney 14 year old to pilot it.

  31. Bubblegum Crisis by ultracool · · Score: 1

    Don't worry. There will be plenty of jobs for humans once the robots start going crazy.

  32. the real reason for robot popularity in Japan by kpharmer · · Score: 1

    Note that Japan has an extremely rigid social structure - and that asking for help or accepting assistance from others is often problematic.

    In a culture like this robots are most likely less stressful assistants than in the west.

  33. Oh yes. by lewp · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "People are still asking whether people really want robots running around their homes, and folding their clothes," said Damian Thong, senior technology analyst at Macquarie Bank in Tokyo.

    I think I speak for most of the audience of this website when I say "ever since I was six."

    --
    Game... blouses.
  34. I have never heard an American clamor for: by patio11 · · Score: 1

    Humans to do dishwashing, like humans normally do.
    Humans to do laundry, like humans normally do.
    Humans to build fires, like humans normally do.
    Humans to connect phone calls, like humans normally do.
    Humans to review every credit card charge being made and check for fraud in real time, like humans normally do.
    Humans to lift construction materials to the 35th floor of buildings, like humans normally do.
    Humans to drive in rail spikes, like humans normally do. OK, I lied, I have heard that one. The human in question died -- its supposed to be inspiring, for some reason.

    Possible conflict of interest watch: I used to work at a Japanese tech incubator which did robotics research. From my perspective, a robot which is used to help an old lady get dressed in the morning because touching her toes is difficult in her old age is just another technological advancement. It makes her life easier, fuller, and more dignified than having to having a nurse do it. Why force her to disrobe in the presence of a stranger every day for the rest of her life? She's quite possibly old enough to remember washing clothes by hand in running streamwater with a washboard, but we're not going to ask her to do that out of a misplaced desire to build moral fiber!

    (P.S. There are many causes of Japan's low birth rate. Not all of them are amenable to easy fixing -- how do you tell ladies "OK, I get it, marrying the average Japanese guy is kind of a lousy deal and you'd rather spend your late 20s working on your career, but you need to suck it up and get pregnant so that your mother's generation has sufficient nurses"? How do you say "OK, we'd sort of appreciate you to raise a family of 4 or 5 in an apartment that is smaller than many American dorm doubles?")

    --
    Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
    1. Re:I have never heard an American clamor for: by Cathoderoytube · · Score: 1

      Jeez. I completely forgot the lynch pin to this argument.
      If all the Japanese people stop making more Japanese people there will be NO MORE ANIME!!

      But seriously.

      You have to consider that Japan can build an endless army of robot nursing home care workers, but if they don't make more people then there will effectively be no more Japan. I don't see how you people are opposed to the concept of perpetuating the human race by the means of reproduction.

      --
      I have nothing compelling to say
  35. Don't Believe The Hype! by okazakiOm · · Score: 1

    One of the only commercially successful consumer robots so far is made by an American company, iRobot Corp. The Roomba vacuum cleaner robot is self-propelled and can clean rooms without supervision. "We can pretty much make anything, but we have to ask, what are people actually going to buy?" said iRobot CEO Helen Greiner. The company has sold 2.5 million Roombas -- which retail for as little as $120 -- since the line was launched in 2002.
    The way this was written leads you to the impression that good ol' merican Roombas are successful in Japan, when nothing could be further from the truth. http://search.kakaku.com/ksearch/search.aspx?query=roomba&search.x=0&search.y=0 lists the Roomba 530 at around ¥70,000 (~USD680), while a check at Amazon says I can buy the exact same model in the States for USD260. I'm guessing that extra $440 isn't import robot tax. Of course, a Roomba is rather useless in your average Japanese house, where there are often raised sills between rooms.

    The Aizu Chuo Hospital spent about some $557,000 installing three of the robots in its waiting rooms to test patients' reactions. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, said spokesman Naoya Narita. "We feel this is a good division of labor. Robots won't ever become doctors, but they can be guides and receptionists," Narita said.
    I've lived in Japan for most of my adult life, and this is not an indication of cool Japan. This truly is the beginning of the end for this country as a first-tier power, economic or otherwise. Where is there any mention of nurses in the above quote? My wife, an experienced nurse in her 30s, is the person whose job those $185,000 robots are trying to take. But there aren't any robot nurses here, nor will there be any here soon. Yet her salary is shockingly low (at least compared to what she could earn in the States), and hospitals are putting pressure on the government to let in nurses from the Philippines so they can pay them minimum wage to care for an aging population. Japan doesn't allow dual nationality, thereby forcing my children to choose between US and Japanese citizenship when they reach majority, much less any meaningful immigration. Robots are a Goverment of Japan red herring to keep the populace from worrying about 2050 when the population has dropped from the current 128m to 95m http://www.prb.org/Countries/Japan.aspx
  36. Opensource is the key for robotics by markponzi · · Score: 1

    Robots are entering daily life in Japan, good, but in USA and EU ? No. Today building a robot like a rover is not more complex than assembly a new PC. There are a lot of projects based on mini-itx and linux, and more, but only fews are finished. Problems are related to software side. Not all folks are able to develop a custom complex software in artificial vision area or neural networks. Hardware platforms are very differents so build a "big" opensource software is hard... the problem for me is releated to hardware, it's too closed. It's hard to find info for building a sensor array, how to connect them via I2C etc... If you are a coder with no or little knowledge about electronics building a robot is very hard due the lack of "open" on hardware side... and i don't see an easy solution What do you think about ?

  37. Not All Western SciFi by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 1

    Not all Western SciFi robots are Terminators[tm]. I'm quite fond, for example, of Internet authors Elf Sternberg and DB_Story, who present quite a different view of our relationships with the coming generations of robots. And considering the already published books and articles on the topic on Sex with Robots, I remain continually surprised that neither of these authors are, as of yet, mainstream published authors. SF always has been about pushing against the boundaries, yet sex seems to be the one boundary we can't overcome still in mainstream publishing. It leaves me to wonder if authors such as these will make it to print before paper and ink books disappear altogether as anachronisms.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  38. So, I am curious by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    So, far, you have done nothing but say that it is ok for china to do this, but you really do not answer real quesitons. You seem to feel that it is ok for China to tie their money to ours and prevent us from competing? Why should we not have the right to do the same to China or to simply say no more trading with China until they free up the exchange rate? In small nations, tying of the money to us is not a big deal. But it becomes a big deal when the nation is much bigger then us and prevent us from real competition (even when American products are a great deal cheaper than Chinese products, they have a difficult time importing into there). Even now, Chinese gov. looks the other way on factories send the IP to other factories and producing illegal copies of items. So, if the next president says enough is enough, why is that wrong with that?

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:So, I am curious by F�an�ro · · Score: 1

      So, far, you have done nothing but say that it is ok for china to do this, but you really do not answer real quesitons.
      No, that is a misunderstanding. My main point is this: I said it is ok for china to do whatever they want with their currency because it is their currency. The last part is important. What would you say if an european president with a backbone intended to "do something" about the falling dollar?

      You seem to feel that it is ok for China to tie their money to ours and prevent us from competing?
      To be clear: I feel that it is ok for china to define or value their currency however they want. I do not believe that it is ok to prevent others from competing, but tying ones currency to another tangible property is a perfectly acceptable and reasonable policy, the government is essentially just saying "we are willing to give you this much of $whatever in exchange for one yuan". The US did the same with gold, even thought gold was probably a valid currency in other countries at that time.

      Why should we not have the right to do the same to China or to simply say no more trading with China until they free up the exchange rate?
      It is perfectly ok to do the same to China. go ahead, tie the dollar to the yuan.

      Of course that won't suffice, for this strategy to work you would have to tie your currency to something that is rapidely loosing in value. It would probably be easier to adapt federal funds rates and other factors so that the currency falls on its own. In fact that sounds like a familiar strategy to me.

      In small nations, tying of the money to us is not a big deal. But it becomes a big deal when the nation is much bigger then us and prevent us from real competition
      To me that sounds like you are saying it is ok for other countries to have their own fiscal policy, but just as long as it does not interfere with you?

      Even now, Chinese gov. looks the other way on factories send the IP to other factories and producing illegal copies of items.
      Sure, and they allow child labor. But that is a completely different matter than their currency, and if they let their currency float that would not change. China can be blamed for a lot of things. But why internal fiscal policy?

      So, if the next president says enough is enough, why is that wrong with that?
      I may have misunderstood you there. Whether it is ok or not depends entirely on what he does about it. The previous US policies included such things as funding insurgents, toppling governments, installing puppet regimes, putting pressure on unrelated nations to enforce embargos and of course outright invading.
      In your initial post you simply said that the president should "do something about it", and I can think of a lot of things wrong with that.

      But if you simply suggest some flavor of protectionism, i do not mind that much. Protectionism is not be very civilised, and I believe stopping all trade with china would hurt the US more than China, but it would be an interesting experiment for sure.
  39. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  40. Debunked: Japan and Robots by homejapan · · Score: 1
    I've had enough of this silliness; like a few other wise voices here, I'm calling BS on this "special Japanese openness to robots" nonsense that gets repeated verbatim from one lazy press article to another.

    There is, in fact, plenty of robotic research and deployment going on in Japan. No argument there. But there isn't a lick of evidence to support some psycho-socio-cultural "special relationship", or its equally laughable imaginary counterpart, "Western fear of robots". (Everyone here who's afraid of robots, raise your hand.... I thought so.)

    I'll save the forum my blathering; anyone interested can read all about it at Culturology Myth Debunked: Japan's "Special Relationship" with Robots. http://www.homejapan.com/robot_myth

    There! Harumph! Bugger all!