I'll blog about this article and its realities at a later date but let me simply quote one sentence for you to think about:
“That’s why they’re working so hard on the robotics.”
Why robots to care for the Elderly?
Japan faces a much more acute "elder care deficit" situation than Canada. In response Japan is - as the land invented Godzilla. Gigan and Ultraman - developing robots to care for the legions of elderly Japanese that do not enough money or children to care for them. Yes robots. One such "companion" robot is serving on the International Space Station right now and will provide culturally appropriate Japanese conversation and companionship to the Koichi Wakata, the ISS' Japanese commander when he arrives in November.
Quoting from the Guardian's article about Kirobo:
Japan faces a much more acute "elder care deficit" situation than Canada. In response Japan is - as the land invented Godzilla. Gigan and Ultraman - developing robots to care for the legions of elderly Japanese that do not enough money or children to care for them. Yes robots. One such "companion" robot is serving on the International Space Station right now and will provide culturally appropriate Japanese conversation and companionship to the Koichi Wakata, the ISS' Japanese commander when he arrives in November.
Quoting from the Guardian's article about Kirobo:
In a statement, the organisers said the robot will be designed to "help solve social problems through communication".
"The main objective is that humans can talk to it and feel some sort of closeness to it," the developers said. "That is why we decided to give it a humanoid shape."
Given the lengths to which the Japanese are going just to provide culturally appropriate care for their elderly, what is your church or ministry doing to prepare for a future here in North America where the elderly greatly out number the young?
Is elder-care abroad a new area for Christian missions to think about?
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