http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyemonday/feature_180208.htmlCan robots substitute human affection? Can robots make people feel love?
In all industrialised nations robots are used to substitute humans and perform trivial manual tasks. Robots are cheaper, more reliable and more durable. Now, from Japan a new kind of robot is starting to emerge: therapeutic robots, or mental commit robots, to keep us company either at home or in nursing home environments. This kind of robot is designed as a personal companion. Some of them can small talk, check email, recommend movies and transmit images of our family members.
Mechanical Love is about people who have overcome their reservations and embrace the new opportunities that robot technology offers.
Mechanical Love introduces us to Paro The Baby Seal and Professor Ishiguro. Paro is a cute little baby seal robot who is developed to stimulate our need for bodily and emotional contact. Holding the little seal has proved as a cure for dementia (or at least diminishes it) and helps children in hospitals recover faster.' In the film Paro is being given to an elderly woman in Germany, and we follow the growing relationship between the elderly woman and her Paro.
Professor Ishiguro dedicates his time to copying humans. He has already copied his daughter and wife, so his next natural step is to copy himself. As he says: "It's very practical to have the master nearby!"
The film will follows the big moment when his android copy of himself is being introduced to his wife and daughter for the first time. Will they love the robot as much as they love him?
Can a human love a robot? Can a robot love a human? And can robots bring people together? By using the robot and the latest robot technology as a prism director Phie Ambo looks at what constitutes a human being, who are we? What does it take to build relationships? And what is love.
you can find torrents of it. I want one of those paro seal things.
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