This piece (from Mims’ Bits) on the difference between western and Japanese attitudes to robots is a stretch. Read the whole thing, but here’s an extract:
Heather Knight, founder of the world’s first (non-industrial) robot census, has made the study of robot / human interaction her life’s work. She posits that the difference between Japanese and American attitudes toward robots is rooted in something much older than even the idea of robots: religion. “In Japan… they’re culturally open to robots, on account of animism. They don’t make a distinction between inanimate objects and humans.”
…Given that Japanese culture predisposes its members to look at robots as helpmates and equals imbued with something akin to the Western conception of a soul, while Americans view robots as dangerous and willful constructs who will eventually bring about the death of their makers, it should hardly surprise us that one nation favors their use in war while the other imagines them as benevolent companions suitable for assisting a rapidly aging and increasingly dependent population.
Oh sure, that’s it. Western culture shown to be hopelessly morally inferior yet again (or something). Give me a break.
It is true that Japanese culture has predisposed them to view robots differently, mostly because their cultural mythology is filled with stories of magically animated samurai armor and the like, which has led to decades of animated and live action movies and TV shows about the stereotypical “helpful giant robot”. How that makes them superior, I have no idea. Just being different in no way makes them better.
If she has at the very least sampled a random group of Western and Japanese people, found such a difference in attitudes and then found a correlation with religion then great (as dodgy as I think her hypothesis is), otherwise, um, what?
Having lived in both Japan and the U.S., I can tell you that Japanese really are more receptive to the use of robots that Americans seem to be. I also think the article is correct that Americans seem to fear robots more than the Japanese. The Technology Review article was simply pointing out these observations. I don’t think it was the the author’s intent to denigrate American culture.
One would think that Disney induced fantasies of talking fawns, fibbing puppets, and singing candlelabras would place the US in the lead in the animism race.
I can tell you that Japanese really are more receptive to the use of robots that Americans seem to be.
Perhaps, but I would guess the difference is more “Roomba meh” than “No, not that roomba abomination – your meddling and playing god will kill us all!”. And of course, the reason the US has military robots, obviously, is because it has a cutting edge and powerful military and military spending is not taboo. Also, I would find it odd if a nation significantly characterised by a fear of robots turning on their makers to be the ones building military robots.
“Also, I would find it odd if a nation significantly characterized by a fear of robots turning on their makers to be the ones building military robots.”
Maybe thats why more Americans (non-military ones) fear robots more than Japanesedo.
Maybe it’s the American aversion to introversion and introverts that makes us less amenable to robots. As an introvert, I would gladly substitute robots for many of the people I have to deal with. (Starting with the drywalling contractor who should have been here by now.) But robot helpers must be anathema for people who want small talk all the time. (Of course, a robot could be programmed for small talk, but then the extroverts would have to admit that small talk doesn’t require non-artificial intelligence.)
Maybe it’s the American aversion to introversion and introverts that makes us less amenable to robots.
There is truth to this.
There seems to be a lot of hostility directed at successful tech entrepreneurs such as Peter Thiel that rich athletes and movie industry people seem to be exempt from. The only explanation I can think of for this is the former are perceived as being introverted nerd (which is probably not the case of Thiel) and the latter are natural extroverts. Hence, its OK for the latter to be rich but not the former.