Think Tank: Greying Japan On Its Way To Robot Majority
Tokyo — for all its wonder and surreality — is a throbbing biomass of tightly compacted flesh. Minds strain at the perpetual crush of human and soul and personality. Perhaps this goes far in explaining Japan's intricately formalized rules of social decorum: perhaps the culture has reacted explosively to the lack of personal space by building up psychological breathing room in every transaction, constructing as many obstacles as possible between two human beings actually interacting.
I suspect this same theory goes a long way towards explaining Japan's fascination with robots. Yes, robots are unequivocally awesome, but when you live in a city with a ten-to-one ratio of meat to oxygen, a man made of metal is a particularly wonderful thing. No wonder the birth rate is declining: why birth a mewling, meconium-spurting sprog when you can just have protected sex and buy yourself a cute robot puppy that flips as it yips?
But the drawback is declining birth rates and a collapsing social infrastructure. 40% of Japan's population will be over 65 in less than fifty years. And according to the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation—a robotics think tank—it is possible that up to 3.5 million jobs in Japan will be filled by robots by 2025.
In fifty years, Japan will be a curious island of anime-obsessed geriatrics, cared for by an armada of cybertronic care givers. And fifty years after that? Robo-Japan officially applies for membership in the United Nations, an event which—as all men know—eventually predicates the creation of the Matrix.
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I like to watch both of those animatrix episodes just because their so hauntingy fasanating.
"why birth a mewling, meconium-spurting sprog when you can just have protected sex and buy yourself a cute robot puppy that flips as it yips?"
That has to be one of the most amusing and brilliant things I've heard in quite a while. I personally wait with eagerness for the day that we can have all menial tasks controlled by robots. Sure a lot of people will lose jobs and starve, but overpopulation is already an issue in many parts of the world. This situation in Japan shows the future of the rest of the globe sooner or later.
"But the drawback is declining birth rates and a collapsing social infrastructure. 40% of Japan's population will be over 65 in less than fifty years."
It's a double-edged sword, not reproducing. It solves our overpopulation problems, but when you're talking about losing a large percentage of a generation world-wide, it'll also hurt us faster than we realize.
Suddenly we'll be a planet full of geriatrics and that will create a shock-wave of birth declines in the next couple generation after us. (Older couples having kids makes for higher birth defects, etc.)
Regulating childbirth, is definitely the better option - as socially oppressive as it sounds. Although, you can argue too that Mr. & Mrs. Joe Blow having 5-6 kids is socially oppressive too.
A great paradox of mankind.
what? no Ghost in the Shell?
I was thinking more along the lines of Katsuhiro "Akira" Otomo's Roujin Z.
Shoot, what movie is that picture from? Is that the Metropolis remake?
No, that's "The New Renaissance" segment of The Animatrix. If the Wachowskis had stopped with those before ruining the franchise with Reloaded and Revolutions, the world would be a better place. Many of the animators behind this are also involved with a Batman direct-to-DVD coming out this summer, Gotham Knights, which is meant to bridge the gap between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.