A Robot in Hong Kong
Friday, June 18th, 2010There are more and more robots who are finding themselves out of work these days. Some might say that this is just the sign of the times, with economies in a kind of temporary spin dry, but for the robots, it’s especially bad news. In Hong Kong, hotel staff is fortunately all human, where there is room to negotiate subtleties and engage in real live conversations, and thankfully, it looks like automated everything is still very far off.
But the robots might disagree.
The Robot Kitchen , which was in full force in 2006 and 2007, is no longer in operation, and most of the people who ate there, the fault is with the robots. The technology team behind the robots are claiming that it was not their fault at all, but had to do with the limited programming that they are capable. The robots did their job, but people wanted too much, and they didn’t understand the laws of robotics .
In a place where technology and culture merge in unexpected, and often very delightful ways, the idea of a restaurant run by robots is a very good one. But it turns out that it wasn’t just an experiment in the new machine age, but was one of transcultural understanding. Robots can only do so much, and only what they are told to do, so whenever there are new variables entering the picture, things tend to get a little awkward.
They are limited, furthermore, by the decisions of their creators, and although there has been an effort to create a machine that thinks for itself, one that’s been well underway since the early 1960s, the technology is not there yet. The main fear that the robots have, after their favorite employer shut the doors, is that the robot fad was just a fad, and people’s love of their cyborg eyes was as fleeting and fickle as any kind of love based on infatuation. They are currently gathering in cyber-cafes all over Asia to determine their next big marketing scheme.
Tags: laws of robotics
