A Focus on the Future
Japan leads the world in robotics. They want robots to serve them rather than immigrants, which is why they haven’t loosened their extremely tight immigration laws. And this could actually be a boon to humanity, because we can’t continue to depend on people from poor countries to do all our dirty work.
One of the key differences between Japan and the US, is they don’t fear technology. They embrace it. Their fiction isn’t full of ways technology will be the end of humanity. Our Luddite mentality, our fear of progress has held us back.
Robots are already taken for granted in Japanese factories, so much so that they are sometimes welcomed on their first day at work with Shinto religious ceremonies. Robots make sushi. Robots plant rice and tend paddies.
There are robots serving as receptionists, vacuuming office corridors, spoon-feeding the elderly. They serve tea, greet company guests and chatter away at public technology displays. Now start-ups are marching out robotic home helpers.
They aren’t all humanoid. The Paro is a furry robot seal fitted with sensors beneath its fur and whiskers, designed to comfort the lonely, opening and closing its eyes and moving its flippers.
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.
In the past several years, the government has funded a plethora of robotics-related efforts, including some $42 million for the first phase of a humanoid robotics project, and $10 million a year between 2006 and 2010 to develop key robot technologies.
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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.
America was once the technological leader of the world. But as our education system worsens (see below) and our technological edge weakens, we really should be following the Japan’s lead and developing our own robotic answers to many of our problems.
Most of our robotic advances have been in the military, with drone aircraft and vehicles. That’s where we put our money and priorities in the field. Generally speaking, most of America’s technological developments came from either military research or the space program, then trickled down to consumers.
But that’s not a sustainable way of doing things. Billions get funneled down various rat holes and a few good things come out of it. A lot of it gets wasted. The Japanese just focus on what needs to get done and it’s paying off for them.
We should focus on the future.
We’ve got the Terminator; Japan has Astro Boy.
Big difference in attitude towards robots, no?
Posted by on 03/02 at 10:14 PMRobotics are just one of many reasons I love Japan. The Japanese are responsible when it comes to technology, embracing it as a tool.
It’s just so shocking that America can’t do the same. Especially in the grim post-hippie age, which thinks that technology in general is such a great threat. That’s a far cry from the JETSONS-style future that I (or even Walt Disney!) had imagined and anticipated.
Posted by John Cassidy on 03/03 at 06:14 AMYep. we have these so called greens who basically hate technology unless they’re selling it as a “green technology”. There’s this opinion in our culture, which comes from bad movies and TV shows, that the future is all about evil oppressive governments and/or apocalypses. It’s really a depressed, unimaginative way to think.
Posted by on 03/03 at 08:49 AM
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