South Korea, the world’s most wired country, is rushing to turn what sounds like science fiction into everyday life. The Government, which has succeeded in getting broadband internet into 72 per cent of all households in the past five years, has marshalled an army of scientists and business leaders to make robots full members of society.
By next year, networked robots that relay messages to parents, teach children English and sing and dance for them when they get bored are scheduled to enter mass production. Outside the home they are expected to guide customers at post offices, or patrol public areas, searching for intruders and transmitting images to monitoring centres.
If all goes according to plan, robots will be in every South Korean household between 2015 and 2020. That is the prediction, at least, of the Ministry of Information and Communication, which has grouped more than 30 companies, as well as 1000 scientists from universities and research institutes, under its wing. Some scientists want to move even faster.
Rock on!
Maybe that’s how we can rebuild New Orleans.
They went from the Jetsons to Flintstones in a day down there.
Haven’t those South Koreans watched iRobot?
And I wonder if this is the only solution they can turn to prevent juvenile or parental delinquency because they’re too obsessed with their 16 hour work days that they have no time to be the proper responsible parents they know they can be. But what does it matter anyway, it seems that American parents are doing everything they can to be good parents but we still get delinquent kids anyway. Now that’s sad.
Okay my rant of the day is done.
South Korea = Kool
North Korea = Scary
dang donald, rant well taken, but a percentage of all youngsters run afoul of the law, it’s human nature during the teenage years to rebel against or simply reject society.
that’s why we strive so hard to protect our kids — my parents fought hard to get me back on the straight-and-narrow after my run-ins with the law.
so what? i had a stay-at-home mom; my little brother who was nearly a total latchkey kid was never arrested once.
some kids are just going to get into trouble, robots or not.
robots are coming, it’s inevitable. what we ought to do instead of mocking the koreans and asians in general — who now have a 10 year head start on us in personal robtics — is get this nation off its fat lazy ass and start innovating again.
if anything we’ve coddled our children into fat lazy pigs who think that just because they were born here that they’re entitled to be rich fat lazy pigs.
Typo in the headline – should be: “Rise of the Machines: The Prequel”
they won’t pull this off. getting broadband in 72% of homes is trivial compared to making robots like this. Can everyone afford it? will the costs to make them be worth it? Is the government making subsidiaries to pay for it?
What’s the point. So they get a bunch of robots into some homes, it doesn’t mean that those robots will actually do anything useful. We need more Roomba style robots and less Asimo.
Yes, but the difference between them and the westerners (aka, Europe and the USA) is that ppl in Korea and Japan LOVE their robots in the same fashion men in the USA LOVE their Harley Davidsons.
…and meanwhile back in this country — we are on a race to the bottom with the middle east for most backwards theocracy!
U..S..A! U..S..A!