ASIMO is an advanced humanoid robot developed by Honda. Shown here at Expo 2005. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is an important story from China’s leading newspaper, the People’s Daily. It’s a recommended read. Check it out!
via Japan’s new flying robot can open doors to enter buildings – People’s Daily Online.
Despite the political tensions between China and Japan, it seems that China is still very much in awe of Japan’s technological prowess.
English: Logo of the People’s Daily 中文: 人民日报题字 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Reading this article left me thinking, I wonder what else will be conquered by robotics in the next few years?
Thoughts?
Dr Alf's Blog 
This article via Dr Alf illustrates just how far behind the UK is falling technologically.
The Chinese are learning from their Japanese counterparts and are already pressing robots into military service for fighting and storming buildings and are considering them for use in care homes as the Japanese commonly use ASIMO robots for toileting,turning patients,cleaning,showering and bed turning.
With AI and expert systems in robots you will not need people for street cleaning,office cleaning,lorry driving,train driving,inbound call centre /customer service work or simple administration.
Lawyers and accountants doing basic book keeping and non contentious work will not be needed either and the potential of robots plus AI,plus 3D printing will be to eliminate 50% of American jobs by 2033.
This figure comes from Eric Schmidt of Google who said it in July 2013 and then again this year on YOU TUBE.
The figure for the UK and Europe with lower levels of productivity will be higher.
Governments need to be calculating what balance of people in work are needed to create sustainable markets and they need to be preparing the public as best they can for the world that will emerge from this instead of not talking about it.
An immediate use for flying robots that can open doors would in my my mind be to go inside larger military drones and then burst out without the need for parachutes to hunt down jihadis in inhospitable places across the world and kill them.
The saving of police man hours and the time of courts and other professionals trying to “understand them”,arrest them and imprison them would be saved.
There would be no place for such people to hide.
Flying robots with listening devices could hover near mosques and listen to the sermons of imans with less than good intent,they could be used to gather evidence and even have their recordings played back in court.
Peaceful use of robots would be in farming,dock working and food production whereby people now engaged in crippling manual work would be freed from it.
Areas now devoid of policemen such as my own town which has no police station,would be patrolled by robots,surly supermarket checkout staff,warehouse staff and parking attendants would be similarly replaced and robots could be used to look after a group of Adult Social Care recipients in several different homes without the need for a car and the risk of getting or giving someone flu,a cold or some other affliction.
In industries plagued by industrial action such as the Royal Mail postmen incapable of carrying their sacks and militant sorting office staff could be replaced with robots and in countries like Afghanistan where we expended billions and lost so much young life our boots on the ground,housed in deep underground bases would always be there ready to be activated to deal with the Taliban,hunt people down in the so called tribal areas and guard our vital interests(oil,minerals,pipelines,airfields etc)