SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the finally,-a-baby-you-can-play-pass-with...-literally! dept.
Toyota will sell a miniature version of the robot it sent to the International Space Station in 2013 to Japanese customers next year. The demand for robotic companions in Japan is expected to be strong due to an aging population, plummeting birthrate, and more adults choosing to live alone:
Toyota Motor Corp on Monday unveiled a doe-eyed palm-sized robot, dubbed Kirobo Mini, designed as a synthetic baby companion in Japan, where plummeting birth rates have left many women childless. Toyota's non-automotive venture aims to tap a demographic trend that has put Japan at the forefront of aging among the world's industrial nations, resulting in a population contraction unprecedented for a country not at war, or racked by famine or disease.
"He wobbles a bit, and this is meant to emulate a seated baby, which hasn't fully developed the skills to balance itself," said Fuminori Kataoka, Kirobo Mini's chief design engineer. "This vulnerability is meant to invoke an emotional connection." Toyota plans to sell Kirobo Mini, which blinks its eyes and speaks with a baby-like high-pitched voice, for 39,800 yen ($392) in Japan next year. It also comes with a "cradle" that doubles as its baby seat designed to fit in car cup holders.
The robot also requires a 300-yen ($2.95) monthly subscription.
Also at BBC, TechCrunch, and New York Magazine (nice headline).
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 04 2016, @11:22AM
Importing human infants and building adult-shaped robots to rear them was what I meant. Fresh blood brought in that way would ameliorate the aging of Japan's population without endangering Japanese culture.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday October 04 2016, @12:53PM
A rather devout religious assertion of no human biological differences. Doesn't fit reality.
Why waste all the fossil fuels importing, its not like the local women magically have no eggs. Which circularizes the whole argument to lets say we exterminate the Japanese race and replace with foreigners while (magically) keeping the culture and economy, if the summary of the problem is the culture and economy have failed the Japanese race why would it not fail grown up imported babies just as badly? Let me guess, the same dumb idea would be proposed to the replacement race, well, its not working for you but if we genocide your race and replace with a 3rd imported race then it'll be all good because... um... just because thats a religious belief. The only way it couldn't fail the replacement race is if there were substantial human biological differences between races which really triggers the inquisition as ALSO being a wrong religious belief.
Its basically the same argument in the USA.