Robot consumers, grow up!

(Article Link) Why can't American consumers handle the future that robotics is willing to offer? Our conception of consumer robotics is steered, almost entirely, by science fiction. Look at the best-selling book "How to Survive a Robot Uprising". With tongue firmly in cheek, Daniel H. Wilson warns that a robot uprising is inevitable. "How can all those Hollywood scripts be wrong?" he asks.

Part of the problem is the Western world's relatively short history with robots, with 1921 perhaps being the first use of the term and America's introduction to robots. Whereas automatons have been part of Japanese culture for hundreds of years, according to Timothy N. Hornyak. There they are seen as friends, helpers, entertainers, and companions. What the Japanese robot industry didn't anticipate was its target market's antipathy toward home robots. The more powerful and realistic the latter became, the less interest Americans showed.

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