Opinion: New Japanese robot may replace priests one day
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In fact, this robot’s specifically designed to perform Buddhist funeral rites.
Lately the robotics industry has skyrocketed in massive waves, which gets us asking the interesting question: will they replace humans? It seems like that may be the case, although thankfully we won’t ever see a Terminator or Matrix scenario.
And why will we see robots take over the world? Because of a Japanese company, Nissei Eco Co. — they’ve constructed the world’s first “priestly” robot.
That’s right: a little humanoid robot named “Pepper” has been designed to actually conduct funeral services, specifically Buddhist funerals. And while the idea seems somewhat off in a lot of cases, from a financial standpoint, it does make a dent in the decision making.
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Pepper will cost any family or individual just 25% of what it would cost to hire a human priest. It, therefore, makes the endeavor a bit interesting.
Many might scoff at the fact that we might make a big deal about the price of a priest, but here’s the thing: thanks to Japan’s shrinking population, you might find that you’ll have a hard time locating a readily available Buddhist priest on call. Now we have Pepper.
To put some more numbers in there and illustrate further, Pepper will only cost a simple 50K yen (which is about $450). In comparison, human priests charge a hefty 240K yen (and that’s $2.2K). So the benefit’s pretty clear.
However, at this moment, Pepper hasn’t been hired for any Buddhist funerals
That says something about the human spirit, religion, and a certain sentimentality about a machine presiding over humanity. After all, especially when it comes to Buddhism, the heart matters; it’s the foundation of all religion. You then have to ask yourself that important question — can a robot have a ‘heart’?
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