Stalled Progress for Robots

Robots can do anything these days. They build cars. They play the violin. They even do the dishes. One thing they can't do, though, is get a job.

The New York Times reports that in Japan, amid a 5 percent unemployment rate for humans, the robots are the ones getting the axe. As industrial production plummets by 40 percent, analysts expect the need for robots to decline by a corresponding amount. This may mean stalled progress on machines like robot receptionists and pets. But don’t feel too badly for our steel-framed friends: One analyst told the Times that companies were getting rid of the robots first in an effort to protect the human workforce.

Guess we’ll have to survive another year answering phones and making our own coffee. Though, Forbes reports that scientists stateside are finding ways to get robots to not only calculate precisely and work round-the-clock tirelessly, they are also teaching them to behave adaptively and react to changing situations. In other words, to become more human.

If they are becoming more and more like us, then here's to commiserating together and supporting each other through the recession.

Photo courtesy of A Voir Etc, via Flickr.