Robots Debut In Japanese Theater Production

An anonymous reader writes "BBC News and CNET Cutting Edge are reporting on a new play starring at Osaka University, in which two Mitsubishi Wakamaru robots interact with human actors and move around the stage. Named 'Hataraku Watashi' ('I, Worker'), the play is authored by Oriza Hirata, a renowned playwright. It focuses on a robot who complains about his boring and demeaning jobs."

Boring and demeaning jobs...

[Cruel Angel (676514)]

... like acting?

Re:

[virgil_disgr4ce (909068)]

"Calculon's Byack!"

It is good...

[internerdj (1319281)]

to see Shatner can still find work.

Re:It is good...

[hey! (33014)]

No way. Shatner maybe a sci-fi actor but he is old school.

What I mean is that he's just not plastic. The stuff of his performances is comprised of natural materials: wood, cheese and ham.

Re:It is good...

[D Ninja (825055)]

Fark picked Keanu Reeves as the "robot actor." A more fitting pick, I believe.

Keanu Reeves Happy - :-|
Keanu Reeves Sad - :-|
Keanu Reeves Really, Really, Angry - :-|

Re:It is good...

[Tetsujin (103070)]

Fark picked Keanu Reeves as the "robot actor." A more fitting pick, I believe.

Keanu Reeves Happy - :-|
Keanu Reeves Sad - :-|
Keanu Reeves Really, Really, Angry - :-|

"Whoa."

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[laddiebuck (868690)]

Nobody remember Roger Moore?

Futurama quote:

[gregg (42218)]

I was all of history's great robot actors - Acting Unit 0.8; Thespomat; David Duchovny!

Chuckee Cheese

[Shotgun (30919)]

But does it have the production value of the singing bears at Chuck-ee Cheese? I am glad to see the Japanese are catching up, though. (I jest. I jest!!)

Re:

[0xABADC0DA (867955)]

Even the robot bears find Chuck-ee Cheese boring and demeaning.

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[Shotgun (30919)]

Ok. You got me. I thought I was being funny. Please moderate my original post as: Sad. So very, very sad.

Motherboard

[gmuslera (3436)]

Wonder if it complains about having its brain the size of a plane.

I for one welcome old meme.

[GMonkeyLouie (1372035)]

Anyone looking forward to the day that robots become better at acting than humans can ever be? Don't need their own stunt doubles, can be actually destroyed on camera after showing something that passes for human emotion, will work for whatever salary they're programmed for... Think people will care that they're not real?

Re:I for one welcome old meme.

[Abreu (173023)]

Perhaps robots are not yet ready for artsy european films, but I think you could stick a couple of RealDolls in the cast of a soap opera and no one would notice...

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[Dogtanian (588974)]

By the time that happens, CGI will be more than good enough that it isn't necessary to build an actual robot. Even if people's opinion of CGI gets more critical to match improvements in the technology, it's unlikely that actual, real robots are going to be able to do any better.

Douglas Adams?

[irishdaze (839248)]

It's a shame that descriptions in popular literature don't count as "Prior Art".

--bows to Douglas Adams--

We are not worthy!

Popular literature is "Prior Art"

[giafly (926567)]

While it's not an obvious source of comedy, internationally-recognized patent law is actually a rather funny thing. Just ask Danish engineer and inventor Karl Kroyer, whose method of raising sunken vessels from the ocean floor failed to obtain a patent because of a comic strip.

The German patent office denied Kroyer's claim based on the patent law concept of "prior art," which essentially means you can't patent an idea that someone has publicly described in the past, even if that idea wasn't patented.

Ge [com.com]

Life imitates art once again

[dkleinsc (563838)]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Darfsteller [wikipedia.org]

As good a read now as it was in 1955.

Poor Arnold...

[lessthanpi (1333061)]

Sadly there will be another Terminator for the Governator, as he will be replaced by a real terminator.

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[Coraon (1080675)]

Futurerama quote - The professor - "he will ran on a platform of not killing people, unfortunately like all politician's he couldn't keep his word."

In the future there will be robots

[nfgaida (68606)]

Do they dance in an interpretive manner?

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[ShadowBlasko (597519)]

Damn . You beat me to it!

/Runs off to listen to the Medieval Millennium Faire commercial.

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[nfgaida (68606)]

Love those commercials.

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[somersault (912633)]

I'm glad there are at least two other well cultured slashdotters around ;)

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[nfgaida (68606)]

Apparently no moderators though.

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[somersault (912633)]

I used all my mod points this morning :(

Sounds familiar...

[sancho_pancho (643406)]

It focuses on a robot who complains about his boring and demeaning jobs.

So it's about Marvin?

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[fish_in_the_c (577259)]

This is a pre-history of marvin and these robots are some of his earily ancestors.

Better than...

[i.r.id10t (595143)]

Better than complaining about the diodes down its left side aching...

Really just a prop, isn't it?

[Gizzmonic (412910)]

This is really just the same thing as using a puppet, except more expensive.

Of course, people say the same thing about Keanu Reeves...

Complains about its boring life?

[slimjim8094 (941042)]

Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to take you to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction, 'cause I don't.

But will they be any good?

[supernova_hq (1014429)]

Everyone walked out. They hated it. I've seen plagues that had better opening nights than this. You said that Oscar was practically on my mantle.

It's a fake!

[Locke2005 (849178)]

Ever see "Victor, Victoria", where the title character (Julie Andrews) got rave reviews as a female impersonator because she actually _was_ a woman pretending to be a man? How long before some robot actor gets lauded for being "so lifelike, just like a human", and then we discover that it's really a human actor inside a robot suit? Weren't there actually people inside CP30 and R2D2 (at least in some shots)?

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[Khisanth Magus (1090101)]

I'd like to think that technology has improved somewhat since then.

Rossum's Universal Robots

[Michael Meissner (520083)]

Of course since we get the word robot from Karel Capek's 1921 play where the robots were the serf labors, it isn't that far of a stretch for the new production: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R._(Rossum's_Universal_Robots) [wikipedia.org]

Prior Art?

[ArrantPrac (1006987)]

Robots performing Japanese theater? It's been done before... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa-Kx5M-8Ak [youtube.com]

Re:They wrote a play...

[ColdWetDog (752185)]

* Life," said Marvin, "don't talk to me about life."

* "Come on," he droned, "I've been ordered to take you down to the bridge. Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? 'Cos I don't."

Art imitates ... Art.

Re:They wrote a play...

[Abreu (173023)]

Marvin the android is part of a comedy series, but if you want to see real tragedy, see the droids in the Star Wars Universe.

They are self-aware, capable of reasoning and emotion, and yet they are all slaves and no one pays more than cursory attention to them. ...maybe its because they don't rip people's arms out of their sockets when they lose at chess

Re:They wrote a play...

[ColdWetDog (752185)]

Marvin the android is part of a comedy series, but if you want to see real tragedy, see the droids in the Star Wars Universe.

"Humor is tragedy plus time" - Mark Twain

And no, I don't know where I'm going with this.

Re:They wrote a play...

[by Anonymous Coward]

That was a terrible post. I'll be sure to come back and re-read it in a few hours.

Re:

[ColdWetDog (752185)]

That was a terrible post. I'll be sure to come back and re-read it in a few hours.

Thank you, I'll be here all week.

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[Xerolooper (1247258)]

They are self-aware, capable of reasoning and emotion, and yet they are all slaves and no one pays more than cursory attention to them.

I always thought that phenomenon made Star Wars more interesting. You wouldn't sit down for a chat with your refridgerator. Even if my fridge has a web interface and tells me the weather and stock quotes. It is the next logical progression that they simulate emotions. The emotions they display are a reflection of their programmer. We all know how acturate the decisions that programmers make are in the real world. Would we still treat them as appliances? ...
I think we would.

Re:They wrote a play...

[Joe Tie. (567096)]

That always struck me as horrible about the droids as well. I was always surprised more people weren't bothered by it. They're constantly being killed, and nobody even cares.

Re:They wrote a play...

[Cro Magnon (467622)]

Agreed! Personally, I value droid "life" more than I would Jar-Jar's.

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[jollyreaper (513215)]

Marvin the android is part of a comedy series, but if you want to see real tragedy, see the droids in the Star Wars Universe.

They are self-aware, capable of reasoning and emotion, and yet they are all slaves and no one pays more than cursory attention to them. ...maybe its because they don't rip people's arms out of their sockets when they lose at chess

More to the point, it sounds like droids tend to develop personalities over time, growing and adapting beyond the standard unit they were when they rolled off the assembly line. The solution? Get the memory banks wiped. Essentially lobotomizing a sentient being so that it returns to being a docile slave.

I guess what makes this more tricky in the Star Wars universe is that slaves in our world are human, always have been and always will be. There's a huge distinction between them and service animals -- we loo

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[luder (923306)]

Art imitates ... Art.

I smell a lawsuit coming around the corner.

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[artg (24127)]

I think this is Art imitating Art .. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UbcMgl5yWwA [youtube.com]

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[astrodoom (1396409)]

It's made to utilize gravity in a very efficient way for just such a problem.

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[tripdizzle (1386273)]

Yeah, and after that you will be utilizing its warranty for the robotic suicide of falling down the stairs.

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[TheWanderingHermit (513872)]

Yeah, but I, Worker? Why not something like Universal Worker, or give the maker a name, like Rotham's Universal Workers?

Sounds like a remake to me.