WIT Life #226: Rise of the Robots
Events, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life, Writers 
Comments Off on WIT Life #226: Rise of the Robots
WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Last night I had the chance to see my first plays starring both humans and robots, created by the teamwork of two greats minds at Osaka University. One is Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro, a robotic scientist who directs the university’s Intelligent Robotics Library, which strives to create robots that can successfully co-exist with humans. The other is the playwright and director Oriza Hirata, who works as a professor at the University’s Center for the Study of Communication-Design and who founded the Seinendan Theater Company behind these plays. Both were in attendance at this event held at Japan Society, and stayed after to mingle with fans at the post-performance reception.
The first play “Sayonara” (which debuted in 2010) features a female human actress and a anatomically-correct female android (made to look like the person it was modeled after) called Geminoid F. The girl has a terminal illness and Geminoid F has been hired to comfort her by sharing her encyclopedic knowledge of poems. Flash forward to later in the short play when the android has completed this job and is being sent to the affected area of Fukushima. She is told by the man shipping her that she will be responsible for reciting poems to those who have been laid to rest there, since “none of us can go.” This commentary on the 2011 nuclear disaster was added to the original version of the play.
The second play “I, Worker” was a bit more straightforward in its story, and it was performed by a male and female actress and two Robovie R3 robots of different genders. The actors play a couple who have lost a child, and the husband Yuji is no longer able to work due to his grief. They employ two robot housemaids and Yuji’s anguish affects the male robot Takeo, who in turn loses his ability to work. Momoko, the female robot, makes food for the family and Yuji laments that he is not even needed for this simple task anymore. As the title indicates, this play questions what the meaning of “work” is and what happens when this way of defining our existence ceases to be a part of one’s life.
Research on robots is taking place at an accelerated pace in Japanese society, not only in Osaka but at universities throughout the country. The goal is to determine what form the co-existence of robots and humans will take in the future. Hirata explains that his mission is to carry our research that examines how “robots can be created so as not to alienate people, or scare children or the elderly.” The welfare of this last group is of immediate concern in Japan, as its upside-down pyramid shaped societal structure insures that there will not be enough human resources to take care of the rapidly aging population. Therefore, research in this field will be indispensable going forward .
Comments are closed.