Japan: Robot Nation

Wow, that is amazing and scary all at the same time. technology...

I'm so angry I missed the live chatroom!

Excellent work! The key, it seems to their society is that inanimate objects (or non-biological) can have a soul. Not to go off of the deep end, but they say objects that are cared for a great deal (such as a teddy bear), can sometimes retain part of one's soul after that person has passed away (leaving sometimes a haunting presense).

So maybe, the same principles and love can apply to a robot, and we can push the current age limit at which a non-biological object can be loved. Thanks for this excellent piece of work, and keep them coming!

The Host guys all look like they are Final Fantasy Characters. ha.

They have a poor idea of marriage. Because if you marry the right person they will be the stress reliever instead of drinks with a stranger you picked out of a book to talk to.

How would you like to know that your parents only had you because they were paid to? Loving huh?

I want a robot so bad...I think this idea about robots is ingenious. It will help their problem a lot.

I've never wanted to go to Japan more than now.

Great pod.

Yep it's sad when a human is replaced by a robot...are we not good enough? LOL :D

Someone needs to give the women a different perspective on being married and having kids. They think life ends...like it's a dead end...last thing one would want. That might be true for some....it's just sad that people view the way they were brought into existence as boring and pointless.

Give me 5hour I get they population up and running. lol!
But if I'm not back with in 5hour &10min call the Waterloo Iowa boyz and give them this code; ( black, panther, big, lip, should’ a pride, with lion, kind.)!

Couples only have sex 42 times a year? They need to lighten up their workload.

And those human type bots at the end are just FREAKY.

This was amazing and by far one of my favorite pods because of all of the elements that were tied in explain how we've arrived to this point. It's one thing to understand how our society has been shaped by our past but another to really visualize how our current day society will impact the future.

Watching this pod, I couldn't help but think about the wounded pride Japan suffered at the hands of WWII and its aftermath on the psyche of the nation. The tone of problem with the population seems to be different between the voice of the men and the opinions of the women. I think the social aspect of life is deteriorating in the country so much that men of the dominant, older, economically declining generation are losing priority with their relationships, their neighboring countries, their families, and even their parents.

The past has made the repair of self image lead to desire to excel to the point of the #2 economy in the globe, when in fact, I think the idea of social equality of women, family and children in daily life are necessary for the society to survive in the lives of these overworked men....and fast. A changing of the work culture to encourage time out or family or even on-the- job relationship training might be a short term solution.

Adam, I got the sense that in this pod, the ideas of the elderly overwhelm any possibility of alternative to the Japanese society committing "technological seppuku" where we see a destruction of what makes Japan what its people, society and economy unique. Haven't books like Brave New World and movies like Gattaca and The Matrix warned about this sort of thing? They are fiction, but fixing social inadequacy and the need for love with new gadgets, robots and "sex toys" isn't replacement. There is a deeper trauma. I think it lies in the Japan-U.S. relationship. Japan would rather get stepped on by the US military presence than standing up and saying get out with risk of exploitation by a Korean or Chinese force.

In the end, I hope that people are not so desensitized to each other's interests and self reliance of human company and contempt for non-Japanese, that it would make it easy to rebuild a military regime to that of Imperial Japan, with robots at arms by the side of steadfast soldiers. This would be a deep sadness if the only thing left to define what it means to be Japanese would be to die for the country...again.

I thought Adam looked great in his hosting suit, very cute. But I am pretty much the opposite of a Tokyo girl.

I think human-like robots are only going to exacerbate the birth rate issue in Japan: more people will substitute interaction with these life-like entities for real human interaction.

It's pretty wild how the culture doesn't seem to accept other cultures... A Japanese-born Korean, has to give up her Korean name for a Japanese one to gain citizenship? REALLY???

fantastic and interesting- funny that in a world of increasing overpopulation, japan should be in this situation. i bet that within 100 years there's going to be some turf wars for land re-distribution on an epic level.