When robots become priests, things get weird!
The world is changing rapidly, sometimes to such an extent that you may have the impression that you are losing ground under your feet in all these changes. One of the novelties is robots, which most often develop away from the public eye, and then also gradually integrate into society. It is true that this integration has very limited meaning in a given context. Today I am writing about one such robot.
A new robot was introduced in Japan relatively recently, which became an employee of the Buddhist temple Kodaiji, and which was ordered by the temple for a real trifle at a price of one million dollars. Robotics professor Hiroshi Ishigura from Osaka University created his performance. This robot is 195 centimeters tall and is sexually neutral.
Limited scope of work
The robot's customers claim that its real value is that it will never die and that it will be constantly updated and thus become more and more elaborate. Currently, this robot priest has a limited scope of work, which comes down to reciting the Sutra of the Heart as the most famous sutra among Buddhist scriptures, or more precisely the Heart of Perfection of Wisdom. The discussion of robots and the soul was related to the non-existence of the soul in the robot, and resulted in the conclusion that it is not really that important because Buddhism is not primarily a religion but a philosophy.
Japanese in the company of robots
The Japanese love robots and have more than responded well to this and others like him. Westerners, on the other hand, can't be robbed. Unlike Europeans, the Japanese were raised on comics and robot culture. Japanese Buddhists started using the Pepper robot five years ago (2017), which is programmed to read the scriptures, sing prayers, beat drums for funeral ceremonies and the like.
As the number of Buddhists in Japan decreases, in this way, priest Tensho Goto allegedly tried to increase the popularity of Buddhism and reach new members, targeting a young team. As bodhisattva occurs in various forms, this form of robot is taken as its latest incarnation. Whether this will increase the number of Buddhists we are not sure. This robot is said to be emotional and compassionate. This attribution of emotions to the robot is a matter of excluding reason, because robots at this moment only with their words, and even facial expressions and body gestures show what is expected of them in accordance with programming, but whether it is an indicator of emotions is not.
Integration or not?
The rejection of integration by humans may, some believe, cause frustration in robots as well and lead to certain problems in communication between man and smart machine. But robots shouldn't really be able to feel frustrated at all, so this fear is irrational, at least it should be, and it comes down to trying to give human traits to robots. Here it may be better to ask whether society is developed enough to include robots as well.
Robots are most often introduced to reduce costs because they are significantly cheaper than humans, which will cause and cause job losses and then dissatisfaction and poverty. Robots require a certain higher level of social awareness in order to be included in society, but in order to achieve this, it is necessary for society to be rich enough and for robots not to take away people's jobs. So, it is still too early for such moves, since the introduction of robots can lead to poverty in a large percentage of the world's population, which is why the vast majority do not look at robots with approval. If people did not look at robots as a threat, that is, if society were developed and focused on more spheres than securing existential issues, things would probably be completely different.
