Say hello to Pepper, the humanoid robot developed by the collective efforts of French robotics firm Aldebaran and Japanese telecom giant SoftBank!
“Pepper is the first humanoid robot designed to live with humans. At the risk of disappointing you, he doesn’t clean, doesn’t cook and doesn’t have super powers… Pepper is a social robot able to converse with you, recognize and react to your emotions, move and live autonomously.” – Aldebaran Robotics
He isn’t wrong, since SoftBank plans on selling Pepper ‘bots in Japan next month for only 198,000 yen (<U.S. $2,000), plus a monthly subscription fee. From there, expect Pepper to make his way into the western world, from the Amercas to Europe, with the goal of helping humanity take their first giant leap into the world of humanoid robotics. Once an emotional bond is developed between humans and robotics, things will start getting really interesting as we reach the point when robots acquire human-level intelligence.
FUTURE IMPLICATIONS
Pepper is only the beginning of a joint-relationship between humans and robotics. As noted above, other companies are already trekking forward with their own humanoid robot, ready to win the hearts of humanity. Pepper may not be the most intelligent robot in the market, but he’ll certainly be one of the most welcoming, given the already popular demand for mass-market robotics by the general populace. The 21st century is the century of sci-fi, where our imagination and all of our dreams come true.
Soon there’ll be more than just a market for robotics, but an entire population made entirely of robotic beings, living amongst humans, growing and evolving like the rest of us. A large section of the human population will even attempt at joining them, merging their biology with cybernetics – the rise of a cyborg nation! Once that happens, the world as we know it today will no longer exist. Some call it the Singularity; others call it the Transhuman Age. Whatever the name will be, it is a world that we welcome with open arms!
Photo Credit: Aldebaran Robotics