A robot that looks like you is available now! Oh, yes it is. In fact, it can even be programmed to have your voice.
This falls under the categories of "Ain't Science Grand?!" and "It Scares Me, Real Bad!"
ONLY $225,000 EACH
You can buy your robot twin at a Japanese department store chain Sogo & Seibu. Manufactured by Kororo, this life-size humanoid will cost you $225,000.
The department store claims that it will start accepting orders in January at all of its stores. However, only two robots will be made. If more than two people want to pay almost a quarter-of-a-million dollars for their robotic twinster, then buyers will be chosen by lot.
ROBOTIC DOPPELGANGERS
These robotic doppelgangers (ghostly doubles of living persons that haunt their living counterparts) are made of silicone and can move their upper bodies.
One of Kokoro's robots showed up in a Japanese TV commercial last year. The picture, right, shows one of these "Actroids."
WHY WOULD YOU WANT ONE?
Why would you want a robot that looks like you? Maybe if you're childless and want to pretend this is your progeny. Or, perhaps a beloved member of your family dies, a spouse or child. But robots are meant for doing work that you don't want to, or can't, do yourself.
All of the other explanations I can come up with in my mind for wanting such a doppelganger are too weird to mention -- to admit I even thought of them. Well, there are a lot of sick people in the world. I just don't want to be one of them.
The potential ethical issues surrounding this robotic product are enormous. What if you wanted the robot to look like someone other than yourself -- a real someone, your archenemy perhaps?
Once again, as Grandma Neva Belle would say "Jeez Louise!"
Or, as another member of the family says: "Doesn't it just hurt your brain to think about that?"
by Sharon McEachern
Comments