Robotic Nation Evidence

Toyota Robot

Toyota to develop workman humanoid robot by 2005

From the article:

Japan's top car maker Toyota will develop a humanoid robot designed to help factory workers and provide assistance in nursing care and rescue operations.

Also:

Unlike Honda's ASIMO, the world's first two-legged walking robot unveiled in 2000, and Sony's QRIO, the world's first jogging robot revealed this month, Toyota's robot will be used for "practical" purposes, the daily said.

While Honda and Sony have said they are not considering selling their models in the foreseeable future, the daily said Tokyo plans to market its workman robot.

It is interesting that this article mentions "nursing care". The conventional wisdom holds that nurses (like teachers) will be immune to robotic replacement. But nurses are under fire even in 2004:

Robot gets job as nurse

From the article:

The University of South Alabama Medical Center is participating in a three-month clinical trial that will explore the use of a robot as a solution to the nationwide nursing shortage, hospital officials announced Monday.

Also:

Giving examples of what the robot can help accomplish, Williams said the nurses could use the zoom function on the robot's camera to check an IV site for swelling. Or they could send a nursing assistant into a patient's room to remove the dressing from a wound and could use the robot's camera to zoom in on the wound and check it.

If there is this much corporate demand to replace nurses now, imagine how quickly nurses (along with teachers, waiters/waitresses, store clerks, etc. etc.) will be replaced once there are humanoid robots like Toyota's available off-the-shelf to take over these jobs. See Robotic Nation for details.