Robot Suit Gives Elderly Super Strength, Attitude
Japan's Kanagawa Institute of Technology showed off their intimidating AIR-PRESSURE ROBOT SUIT, designed to turn old people into RoboCops who not only don't need wheelchairs, but can lift cars and fight crime. The suits could be used by old people to get around, or by their caregivers, who need to carry them around. Japan is urgently working on robots for the elderly because they don't allow significant immigration like all other industrialized nations do.
2:29 PM * PERMALINK * 23 comments
Comments:
The problem is not disallowing immigration...but the population not having enough children. The birth rate of white people (meaning Europeans and people of Euro-extraction) is a negative number in many countries. Estonia/Latvia/Finland have the lowest birthrate on the planet and their populations are shrinking. Studies show that as a country becomes prosperous and the women become more educated then the birth rate plummets. Japan is on the same level as Northern Europe in terms of prosperty and unfortunately birth-rate too. Why should countries like Sweden, Estonia, and Japan open up their societies to be flooded by millions of people from Africa, China, and India? These are countries with burgeoning birthrates - which would be a good thing - children are a blessing - if they had the resources to care for them. As women become more educated they are taught that they can only find fullfilment by competing with men, and not having children. It is a shame that women can't be highly educated and not be brainwashed that having babies is beneath them. This is our legacy in the West and Japan, while the Middle East/Africa/India are the other extreme with misstreating their women and only giving them worth in the number of children they have. Why can't there be a happy medium? If all families had three children that would allow socitities to maintain and grow on a managable level. Oh well.....the West might be doomed without divine intervention.....By the way....before the hate mail floods in, let me point out that most of my comments above were borrowed from Catholic websites, the websites from the governments of various European countries...all of which are trying to encourage women to have more children!
To add to anonymous' comment I would like to add that in the history of humanity, no society has ever survived prosperity.
Yo dude's, what's the problem, exactly? Not enough white people? Who cares, other than the KKK, what color the majority of people are in the future? As one race declines, numerically, others will replace them and the world will continue on just fine. If a particular country does not allow immigration, they will receive the advantages and disadvantages for such a choice, and may reconsider along the way. By almost any metric, nationally, globally, technologically, etc. we are more prosperous than ever in history, and there no reason to believe this trend will not continue regardless of what ratio of black to white to brown to yellow people exist in 50-100 years...
Actually the US is not more prosperous than ever. The US is its decline. The 50s was the zenith for the US and today there are more poor people in the US than the 50s. However, there are more millionaires in the US than ever, but that does not help everyone. And having more electronic gadgets and toys is not a sign of prosperity. Many countries fear for their survival. The dissapearing of any race is a sad thing, it would be a crime if the Aboriginies in Australia dissapeared off the planet, just as Jews want to increase in numbers and protect their heritage and their race and they have created a successful society in the middle east, but are under constant threat from their neighbors. It is the same in Africa were diferent tribes want to increase in numbers and proliferate. These are natural feelings for any segment of the human population. We should mourn the passing of the Ancient Greeks who no longer exist in any large numbers, as the same fate fell the Ancient Egyptions. But getting back to the original spirit of Mike's article from Japan and the human extoskeletens, the bottom line is humans need children, and children should take care of their elders, and due to the shortage of children in Japan, the Japanese scientists are looking for something to replace that human touch, and it is with robots to take care of the ageing. This is sad...very sad.... (but the idea of using machines to help those who are handicapped is a good thing). So don't turn this into a race question Phil, I am sure, because the way I read anonymous' first comments above I think it was meant as a indictment of not having enough children in wealthy society, regardless of race. Don't turn it into something it is not.
Actually all of the increases in American poverty are accounted for by immigration.
Americans haven't gotten poorer. We've welcomed more immigrants.
Here comes the economics.
Mike Elgan
Which is more sad, watching a culture disappear as the youths absorb the cultures around them or forcing a group of people to breed only with each other so they can be preserved like zoo animals? Forced cultural eradication is abysmal, but forced cultural preservation is even more sinister.
No one culture on this planet has ever been forced to breed within themselves or others. However cultures do try to preserve themselves and that is ok. Should the Vietnamese give up their language and culture and let the Chinese take over their country, simply because there are more Chinese than Vietnamese? How about the Greeks who don't want to be Turks? Should Turkey be allowed to take over and eradicate and/or absorb Greeks because there are more Turks? And the same applies to the US....should we change our national language and Western way of life because we are being outnumbered by spanish-speaking indians from Central America and the Carribean? You tell me....but I like speaking English, I like Anglo-Saxon culture and I like being diferent. The whole planet should not be the same, and we should not all melt into one type of people. Viva la diference!
"No one culture on this planet has ever been forced to breed within themselves or others."
Apparently you've never read Romeo and Juliette. For millennia there have been self-imposed restrictions about inter-racial or inter-cultural marriages. Today we have rich Western nations deciding what cultures indigenous people and developing nations are allowed to interface with all in the name of multiculturalism. Whether it's Greenpeace trying to keep valuable new crops out of Africa to help with malnutrition or South American governments being urged that isolation and preservation is more important than vaccinations and basic healthcare we've gone from completely ignoring the rights of these people by wiping them out to trying to keep them as human exhibits of our past.
We should help nations who have their cultures forcibly removed as in the destruction of Buddhist artifacts by weak-faithed radicals who feel threatened, but stopping the evolution of a culture helps no one. Even if it seems that a culture is being lost, there are nearly always groups who preserve it - even if it's not part of their own history. I like visiting Colonial Williamsburg but I'm glad we had an influx of new ideas from around the globe that lead to modern medicine and sanitation (not to mention an overabundance of food and electronics gadgets). It's up to the owners of the culture to decide how they want to handle cultural influences caused by immigration, but they have to live with the consequences.
In Vietnam's case I'd imagine learning Chinese would vastly improve the economic abilities of it's impoverished residents, and I don't see much downside since there will always be people willing to carry on the traditions. It's when China decides to destroy evidence of the Vietnamese heritage by outlawing it and eradicating temples that the world needs to step in.
Actually I have read Romeo and Juliet. Both families were Italians. You did not understand what I wrote. There are no laws and there never have been preventing Italians from marrying French or Swiss or Slovenes. But there are always cultural traditions within any culture, and read that again...within any culture about who you are compeled to marry. Now, about the not selling genetically engineered seeds to Africa? These seeds are not the secret to feeding hungry people if there is no money to buy them food in the first place! Major chemical companies want poor countries to buy their seeds because hybrid seeds are sterile thus it forces these countries to buy new seeds every year...and increases the cash flow of the chemical companies! Wicked Wicked Wicked. Oh, and by the way...how would learning Chinese help the Vietnamese? China has many poor people and their lives are not better because they speak Chinese. And also...Vietnam has a flourishing economy. And there is no such thing as Chinese...it is like saying I speak European. There is Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, etc.....
It's hard to argue with someone who thinks the Montagues and Capulets are culturally the same just because they lived close to each other so I'll stop poking your world view.
For anyone interested, there's plenty of information on the economics, science, and politics of GM crops. Not that economics have much to do with it, we're talking about food being donated by the US government and Greenpeace is labeling it not expensive, but poisonous. You can start with GM proponent Norman Borlaug. Many people are anti-GM because they don't like big corporations. That's why Greenpeace Co-founder Patrick Moore quit, don't fall into the same trap of forgetting ideals and warping facts to take down "evil" corporations.
I didn't think we were arguing. Anyway....I don't think it is possible to reason with somebody who thinks the Vietnamese would be better off economically if they speak Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese!). And the families of Romeo and Juliet were both Italians. Every culture has subcultures, the way people in one State can be different from another state, and within a single state there will be different strata of people based on economics, neighborhood, employment, race...etc.
By the way Mike, you should publish information on why people think it is okay to insult each other on blogs. While the stuff on your blog has been mild, some blogs have venomous comments (look at YouTube) where people seem to check their manners at the door before they use their keyboards!
If we're not arguing we're certainly not being insulting - we just won't see eye-to-eye. If you don't see the parallel of preserving the Vietnamese culture by preserving their language and preserving the Capulet culture by preventing a wedding it will take too long to convince you that actively preserving culture involves restricting personal choice.
As for the Vietnamese learning the language of the largest nearby economic power, that's a no brainer. There's a reason the Island Nations teach their resort staff English.
"US is not more prosperous than ever...The 50s was the zenith for the US...". Are you nuts? You've been watching too much Leave it to Beaver! People live longer. Nobody starves. Racial equality is better than ever. There is more wealth than ever. Nobody would go back.
Yes, there are poor people - but their will always be poor people! AND, even the poorest Americans (with the exception of bums and boozers) usually have a car and a TV and shelter and food... The sort of lifestyle that middleclass people in other countries wish for. That's why everyone wants to come here!
Relax with your "white people are going away" worries. The culture is simply evolving. In the future it will be different - probably better overall. Yes, it's sad that the Acient Greeks are gone, but the present Greeks would never in a million years trade in their cars, medicine, TVs, long life spans, etc. to go back to Ancient Greece. Neither would Indians, or anyone else if they were honest. Life was a lot harder back then!
Live is good - enjoy it!
Shifting away from the melting pot vs. tossed salad model discussions that seem to be going nowhere, where do I get one of those suits? :)
Phill, you have your facts wrong. People are not living longer. When you read that one country has a life expectancy of 35 or 78, that does not mean that many people die at 35 or make it to 78, it means that at the 35-mean more kids die than that at the 78-mean. Societies have always had very old people. Life-expectancy is based on the average number of deaths at each age, so a high-life-expetancy means fewer infant deaths. Unfortunately the numbers give the wrong picture. I have lived in Africa and Africa is full of people in their 70s and 80s, but many countries in Africa have low-life-expectancy rates because so many babies die in the first years of their lives.
And please refrain from your inflamatory comments, such as "relax..blah blah" because you feel threatened by white people. You missed the entire point of the discussion about machines caring for the elderly versus people having children to help care for their elderly. I take care of my ageing parents? Do you? If so I applaud that. But I don't think that Africans, Indians, Central Americans, or any other country should have to care for the ageing white populations in Europe and North America. We should take care of ourselves rather than hiring third-worlders to do it for us. And the way to do so is to have children. Honor your father and mother. It is that simple. Honor = care. End of discussion. I will not return to this thread.
"...People are not living longer (than 50..100...500 years ago)...". Play all the games you want trying to spin statistics, you're not very good at it. People on-average are living longer than at any time in history. The planet is sustaining more people than at any time in history. Their is more prosparity than at any time in history. I'm sorry if you personally don't see this - perhaps you need to work harder to get ahead, or perhaps you just need a little more optimism.
In the end, I don't care if I am cared for by an Asian, African, Mexican, White person, or robot as I get older. Unlike you, I don't plan to burden my children with having to care for me. Children are for enjoying, not enslaving. Instead, I have developed the wealth and means to care for myself and/or pay others to do so. Others that will greatly appreciate the work, by the way.
I'll be honest, I only read the first response by Anonymous, beginning with, "The problem is not disallowing immigration..." After this response, I became inspired to comment, as well.
First, though, the robotic suit is an EXCELLENT idea! I love it! More! More!
I totally agree with Anonymous.
It is a shame that as women are educated that they are taught to compete directly with men - it's like apples and oranges. Moreover, it is a shame that women do not find children as fulfilling. I always hear young women tell each other, "You can do so much more than staying at home having babies." Is motherhood so terrible? I wish I could impact the world as richly as a full-time father who is not burdened with leaving the home to go to work.
I glanced at the rest of the comments, and they are just subjective rhetoric about "I believe this" and "I believe that." Sure, there might be nothing wrong with a different ethnicity providing care for the debilitated, but the reality is developed countries strictly control their immigration. It is not about who I would like to care for me, but what is currently happening in the world (not our heads).
In addition, bashing on Anonymous for simply stating the facts is misdirected. Bash those who actually have the means and the authority to allow this to happen (whatever you got upset about).
CALLING ALL MEN READING THIS!
YOU HAVE A PENIS!
USE IT!
Replace the birth control with pezz and power up your penis with a nutritious diet of grain alcohol!
Wow! What a topic...
I don't know... Some of you seem like you know what your talking about, and I'll be honest. I'm not going to do any research before / while I post this:
It would certainly seem that the elderly eventually become one of two extremes ( money also plays a significant part in this ).
The first of the two would have to be:
Dependent upon those who are more able. Thus apparent need for such a suit, or babies.
The second:
Independent and self sufficient. Able to provide for oneself and potentially others as well.
The more money one makes, the less one has to actually do for oneself, therefore it becomes easier to sustain one's own life. These people typically have no need for an exoskeleton. It seems only the poor require such a suit, as they are without the means to fund their medical bills. ( I say this because experience has led me to believe the poorer one's mind, the poorer one's body ).
So I guess if the suit is free, then that would only make things worse. In my personal opinion, one should not be given food, but be taught to fish.
Plus it's just that much more hardcore if you can do everything yourself. Screw money, I want the skills!
And the title of the article is???
Im sure its not "lets argue about kids and immigration"
so maybe the comments should be about the article and not 1 line of it!!!
i personally feel the suit is good idea. Theres nothing worse that the feeling of worthlessness that age (or illness) can bring when mobility is impared!!
Pete
Anyway....
I think that the idea is good....
It can help elderly people do what they need to do..........
It can also help the police in doing their job....
Li desu ne....Omedeto gozaimasu.....
Hope ou would read this....
it may be true that no society has ever survived prosperity but we are almost at a point where a prosperous society could exist. Essentially there is always a need for a lower class throughout history but what if our lower class was not actually human but rather it was robot. Society may actually survive prosperity and im just happy that the Japanese are working on it because most other industrialized nations aren't doing anything important and USA has spent almost every cent of my money fighting an unwindable war against an un-seeable enemy...
Many of the elderly have some form of dementia. Can't you just see them terorizing the neighborhood in these suits. Or how about those with Alzheimers wandering away,may take a while to find them.
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