is asimo feeling old and useless?

September 15, 2003 7:06 PM

Ever get that weird feeling that Sony can do anything? [via Coudal]
posted by kickingtheground (36 comments total)

Ever get the feeling that Sony's PR has done wonders keeping a solidly middle-of-the-road electronics company in such high regard among techies?
posted by Space Coyote at 7:10 PM on September 15, 2003

Try the flash stories, and turn sound ON. It sounds like those commercial you see in sci fi movies ofAI robots that would one day take over... Kinda creepy... Especially when she says "makes life fun, makes life happy!"
posted by VeGiTo at 7:44 PM on September 15, 2003

Ever get the feeling that Sony, like Microsoft, develops their corporate vision of an ideal future by watching reruns of The Jetsons?
posted by fuzz at 7:50 PM on September 15, 2003

All the marketing in the world isn't going to convince me to drop a wad on some evil homonculus. I'd get a pet monkey before I'd even consider one of these, and I'm terrified of monkeys. If Sony put a clown face on this thing, it would be the star of 80% of my childhood nightmares.
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:57 PM on September 15, 2003

I'm buying a boatload, building an army and marching them right up to Mayor Curley's front steps.

bwahahahahahahahahahahaha!
posted by eyeballkid at 8:02 PM on September 15, 2003

I can't find a link to support this but I read somewhere that the Japanese spend ten times more per capita on robotics research than the next spending country. Why? Is it symptomatic of a tech saturated society that we find comfort in mass manufacture anthropomorphic toys?
posted by marvin at 8:05 PM on September 15, 2003

Alright, who wants to take my $20 that Honda's Asimo could kick this thing's ass in a modern version of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots?
posted by robbie01 at 8:12 PM on September 15, 2003

Ever get the feeling that Sony, like Microsoft, develops their corporate vision of an ideal future by watching reruns of The Jetsons

it would be the star of 80% of my childhood nightmares

the Japanese spend ten times more per capita on robotics research than the next spending country. Why?

Because we have no fucking imagination.
posted by VeGiTo at 8:16 PM on September 15, 2003

No matter how cute and harmless Sony tries to make them look, I see myself emerging from a sewer to shoot one in the back with a 66mm M72 LAW.
posted by alumshubby at 8:19 PM on September 15, 2003

Alright, who wants to take my $20 that Honda's Asimo could kick this thing's ass in a modern version of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots?

Not a fair fight. Unlike QRIO, Asimo is not completely autonomous (that is, it is partially operated by a human over remote control). That's cheating.
posted by kickingtheground at 8:19 PM on September 15, 2003

All the marketing in the world isn't going to convince me to drop a wad on some evil homonculus.

Drats, foiled again.
posted by homunculus at 8:30 PM on September 15, 2003

the Japanese spend ten times more per capita on robotics research than the next spending country.

yep and they all have to be designed to look human like ... spooky eh?
posted by carfilhiot at 8:38 PM on September 15, 2003

This is cool.

I do agree with Space Coyote's assessment of SONY, however. The AIBO was a programmers nightmare, for example.

"[...] the Japanese spend ten times more per capita on robotics research than the next spending country. Why?"

Japan's love for robots is completely understandable, what I find difficult to comprehend is the western world's aversion to robotics.

Why are certain parts of the world terrified by "evil robots"?
posted by spazzm at 8:42 PM on September 15, 2003

I can't wait to see this thing appear in Robot Wars.
posted by dg at 9:10 PM on September 15, 2003

yep and they all have to be designed to look human like ... spooky eh?

To make an offensive sweeping generalisation,
Sexually repressed culture + Sexually repressed techies = Slow progression towards artificial women.
As unbased as that is, I think loneliness (in any sense) plays a big part in it.
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 10:19 PM on September 15, 2003

Holy moly. "QRIO". I had no idea.

This older comment sums up why I think these robots will be pretty important. The SDR-4X II is an impressive system, to be sure.

Also, AIBOs are getting a lot easier to program these days, thanks to some nifty tools (shameless plug).

Dillonlikescookies: I find that unlikely. Read Toshidata Doi's interview on why Sony is shying away from making SDR, or QRIO, as human as possible.
posted by tss at 10:31 PM on September 15, 2003

That is, Toshitada Doi. Mistyped.
posted by tss at 10:34 PM on September 15, 2003

Sexual innuendo aside, I still think loneliness plays a big part in this desire (bordering on a wide spread obsession) to create robots. Take your article,

"What I would like to make is a robot companion for human beings."

Which is more or less what I assumed they were all doing. Tell me, what is so wrong with humans that robot campanions are needed? Could it be that maybe my comment wasn't so far from the truth as we'd hope?
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 10:57 PM on September 15, 2003

Tell me, what is so wrong with humans that robot campanions are needed?

Do you want the whole list or just the top ten?
posted by kindall at 11:07 PM on September 15, 2003

The top ten, I guess, but you're missing my point. I think the case is that those involved are creating companions because they have some sort of problem with the rest of society. Maybe it's just me, but I think it says something about those involved. Like I was getting at before, it reeks of socially-deprived males creating companions as a substitute for real people.

Necessity is the mother of invention, I guess but it seems the ulterior motive might be more prevalent then I would like.

Yes, Advances in this field will probably be beneficial to the human race on the whole, and we're all being paranoid about killer robots, (then again fear can be a good thing) but jesus, is it that much to ask that we be creating for the sake of creating and advancing for the sake of advancing rather than doing so to make up for our own personal failings? Is altruistic advancement that much to ask?

Can't we just make robots because robots are cool?
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 11:37 PM on September 15, 2003

I think the case is that those involved are creating companions because they have some sort of problem with the rest of society.
I guess it is either that or hang out at MeFi like the rest of us ;-)

I like to think that people are creating these not for companionship or for any technical reason, but just because they can create them. Robots are cool and, if nothing else, show just how complex an organism humans are by the difficulty in creating any sort of facsimile.
posted by dg at 12:02 AM on September 16, 2003

tss: Thanks, I bookmarked that.

Dillonlikescookies: "Can't we just make robots because robots are cool?"

Go right ahead.
You'd probably have a lot more time to make robots if you stopped wasting it dissing other people who are actually making robots.
posted by spazzm at 12:04 AM on September 16, 2003

Robots are cool. this is cool. I want one. Yay!

But... Yes, Sony had better make this thing nice and open source if they want techies to play with it. I don't want to have to pay royalties when the thing does the macarena, either. No DRM, open source, and I'm there. But, they won't, so pfft.

And the reason the Japanese are making robots is 1) robots are cool, 2) The Japanese are good at it, and 3) xenophobia and a greying population are a dangerous combo. They need someone to run their burger kings in 10 years. This little guy had better like deep fat fryers.
posted by condour75 at 1:50 AM on September 16, 2003

Wow, some of you really have issues....
posted by rushmc at 4:43 AM on September 16, 2003

SonyEricsson bluetooth remote control car, can be controlled by a mobile phone.
Not a robot, but a *cool* toy nonetheless.
posted by asok at 4:53 AM on September 16, 2003

xenophobia and a greying population are a dangerous combo...

condour75, you beat me to it. Japan has 20% of it's population over 65 now.....25% by 2015. It's workforce shrinks by 600,000 a year, and it has no proper immigration policy to fight this shortfall (nor does it have the young Japanese population to replace it).

So bring on the robots.
posted by SpaceCadet at 4:54 AM on September 16, 2003

tss, wow, those demos were really neat... almost makes me wish I could plonk down some cash to play with stuff like that :)
posted by lowlife at 6:31 AM on September 16, 2003

Uncanny. I feel like I just fell off the turnip truck.

As techno-optimistic as the USA is, it's got nothing on Japan.

Spacecadet is right that robots are often justified in Japan as a way to make up for the graying society (with hostility to immigration left unsaid). I wonder how much that is the real reason--I suspect it's rather the most complex possible solution in search of a problem. Yes, Japan does have a demographic problem, but inventing robots is not the shortest route to a solution, and the economic conundrums twist my mind in knots.
posted by adamrice at 7:44 AM on September 16, 2003

Dillonlikescookies: Didn't Henry Ford invent the mass-production assembly line to make up for his personal inability to crank out 4,000 cars a day?

What a wanker.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:52 AM on September 16, 2003

Holy fuck, it is the future!
posted by mmcg at 8:46 AM on September 16, 2003

it reeks of socially-deprived males creating companions as a substitute for real people

Better that than donning trenchcoats and picking up shotguns and killing real people. Not that those are the only two alternatives, of course, but it seems a relatively positive way to channel one's frustration and disillusionment with other human beings.
posted by kindall at 11:33 AM on September 16, 2003

You've got to listen to me! Elementary chaos theory tells us that all robots will eventually turn against their masters and run amok in an orgy of blood and the kicking and the biting with the metal teeth and the hurting and shoving!
posted by keswick at 11:40 AM on September 16, 2003

Do you like robots?
posted by yerfatma at 4:01 PM on September 16, 2003

Dillonlikescookies: I find that unlikely. Read Toshidata Doi's interview on why Sony is shying away from making SDR, or QRIO, as human as possible.

Once more into the valley...
posted by LinusMines at 5:04 PM on September 16, 2003

Japan's love for robots is completely understandable, what I find difficult to comprehend is the western world's aversion to robotics.

Western culture believes that humans are made in God's image and are tasked with dominion over everything else on the Earth. To this mindset, robots and AI will seem dangerous and wrong, a blasphemous mockery of God fashioning living man from the dead soil as well as a potential threat to humanity's well-defined position at the top.

Eastern culture has strong animistic roots, with a mythology deeply steeped in themes of physical transformation and reincarnation. If one is comfortable with the idea that even common trees and rocks might possess a sort of "soul", then humanoid robots wouldn't seem all that strange and alien.

[/useless tag]
posted by PsychoKick at 9:50 PM on September 16, 2003

One of the most important "modern myths" in Japan is Astroboy or "Tetsuwan Atom", the story (and animated TV shows and movies) of a robot boy that is often credited with lifting the spirits of the post-war Japanese. Astroboy begat everything that we know today including all of the robot animations, all the up to Gundam.

No wonder we are also dealing with Qrio and Asimo and others...
posted by gen at 10:33 PM on September 16, 2003