Robotic Nation Evidence

I worked in the robot industry for some time and was disappointed that the US mostly lost all interest and the Japanese progressed very rapidly.

It is a shame that humanity might have to resort to robots to show any compassion toward the elderly.

Will robots someday raise our children, too? Maybe they would be better at it than some human mothers.
 

Japan has been living in the "robot age" (at least mentally) for more than 40 years with the debut of Astro Boy (aka Atom Boy)... as a matter of fact, the government's push for robotic servants for the elderly began as the Atom Boy initiative.
 

I think robots will rapidly move into both the care of the elderly (a growing population segment) and particularly in the care of Alzheimer's patients. The big area I think in the next few years will be robotic expansion into childcare. This is a poorly paid service area and like much of the service industry highly vulnerable to takeover by socially interactive robots. From there it is a short step to taking over many parenting roles.

See for example:
http://gandalwaven.typepad.com/psychology_and_the_singul/2006/03/robot_mommy_i_l.html

as well as rapidly increasing research into make robots into socially interactive androids:
http://gandalwaven.typepad.com/psychology_and_the_singul/2006/03/would_you_buy_a.html

Chris Allan
Psychology and the Singularity
http://gandalwaven.typepad.com/psychology_and_
the_singul/