apan and Robots Are an Old Love Affair
By The Associated Press 12 hours ago
Japan's love affair with robots could be said to be more than 300 years old.
Wooden wind-up dolls known as 'karakuri' appeared as early as the 17th century. Especially famous is a kimono-clad tea-serving machine considered one of the world's first 'robots.' It carried a bowl of tea on a tray from the host to the guest, waited patiently until the guest replaced the bowl, and then returned to the host.
Based on Western gun- and clock-making technology, these robots were designed as helpers or crowd-pleasers.
That was long before Czech playwright Karel Capek's science-fiction drama, 'R.U.R.,' introduced the word 'robot' to the public at large in the early 1920s.
Capek's machines are at first happy to toil as laborers for their human creators, but stage a rebellion that triggers the end of the human race.
But, 'In Japan, where robots are the good guys in anime or comic books, people just don't feel as threatened by robots as they do in the United States or Europe,' said Brian Carlisle, president of Auburn, Calif.-based Precise Automation and former head of the U.S. Robotic Industries Association
Source link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iRkOq3gZYbOWVwuAQH6AuYyk3JmgD8V4QEEO0
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