By: Don Caldwell
How important is human interaction?
As if being laid up in the hospital wasn’t traumatic enough already, imagine having a humanoid robot coming to visit you and eerily mimicking your facial expressions - its pink-sleeved arms resting primly in its lap, its hair pinned back with a bobby pin (as if having hair in its face would bother it), its head movements just jerky enough to make a mockery of your pain. Some lucky patients in Japan will now get to experience this haunting scenario, as the latest version of Geminoid is installed in hospitals to act as an observer and “gauge patient reactions.”
You can watch the YouTube clip below to indulge in the creepiness…
We are a social species.
It has been said that children born and not given interaction with another human being, will inexplicably die. This would only highlight the basic human need to having the company of another. Have we become so isolated in our own (perhaps selfish?) worlds that society in places like Japan have found a need / market for this type of product?
It is easy to say this type of thing is scary, but why is it scary? Is it the freaky, horror-movie like nature of this “robot”? Or is it about the society that has a need for such things?
When was the last time you visited you sick relative, or visited a retirement home?
Are those people worth it?
Would you be worth it?
(ORIGINAL LINK) Video: Creepy Japanese Expression-Mimicking Robot Hangs Out In Hospitals, "Comforting" Patients | Popular Science
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