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Robots Debut In Japanese Theater Production
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wednesday November 26, @10:43AM
from the first-the-auto-industry-now-our-actors dept.
from the first-the-auto-industry-now-our-actors dept.
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."
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Firehose:Robots Debut in Japanese Theater Production by Anonymous Coward
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Boring and demeaning jobs... (Score:3, Funny)
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It is good... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:It is good... (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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Re:It is good... (Score:5, Funny)
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 -
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Re:It is good... (Score:4, Interesting)
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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Futurama quote: (Score:3, Funny)
I was all of history's great robot actors - Acting Unit 0.8; Thespomat; David Duchovny!
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Chuckee Cheese (Score:5, Funny)
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!!)
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Motherboard (Score:2)
I for one welcome old meme. (Score:2, Interesting)
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. (Score:4, Funny)
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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Life imitates art once again (Score:5, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Darfsteller [wikipedia.org]
As good a read now as it was in 1955.
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Sounds familiar... (Score:2, Funny)
It focuses on a robot who complains about his boring and demeaning jobs.
So it's about Marvin?
Better than... (Score:2)
Better than complaining about the diodes down its left side aching...
Really just a prop, isn't it? (Score:3, Funny)
This is really just the same thing as using a puppet, except more expensive.
Of course, people say the same thing about Keanu Reeves...
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But will they be any good? (Score:3, Funny)
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It's a fake! (Score:3, Interesting)
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Re:They wrote a play... (Score:5, Insightful)
Art imitates ... Art.
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Re:They wrote a play... (Score:5, Funny)
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
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Re:They wrote a play... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Humor is tragedy plus time" - Mark Twain
And no, I don't know where I'm going with this.
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Re:They wrote a play... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:They wrote a play... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:They wrote a play... (Score:4, Funny)
Agreed! Personally, I value droid "life" more than I would Jar-Jar's.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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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