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‘Merging the Ancient and Modern World in Japan’ video:
In the Northern most Island of Hokkaido, Japan’s oldest surviving natives, the Ainu, have a history going back 10,000 years. Ainu beliefs and traditions have influenced modern Japan, especially its religion. The Ainu believe all natural things, such as trees, animals, and even stones, are inhabited by spirits or gods. From the animistic roots came Japan’s native religion, Shinto. The Japanese attitude to religion, though, can leave outsiders confused. Most Japanese incorporate aspects of both Shinto and Buddhism into their daily loves. Buddhism came to Japan in the sixth century long after Shinto, but the Japanese have always been able to combine the new with the old. While Shinto is celebrated at colorful festivals, it is Buddhism that the Japanese turn to in the times of crisis, such as illness or death.
On the surface, the Japanese don’t appear deeply religious, but their spiritual beliefs having a surprising influence on modern society. Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro is Japan’s foremost Android scientist, and Geminoid HI-1 is Japan’s foremost android. Inspired by Japan’s unique spiritual beliefs, they are blurring the boundaries between humans and robots. It’s a question of where the soul is, Japanese people have always been told the soul can exist in everything and anything, so we don’t have any problem with the idea that a robot too has a soul. We don’t make distinction between humans and robots. Japan is a very homogenous, insular island nation, and we have been making things our own way for a long time”. Narrator: Creating a perfect copy of himself has proved useful to professor Ishiguro in unexpected ways. Having developed this robot, we discovered many interesting things; this robot is good enough to re-create the sense of human presence. For instance, it can give lectures to the students or attend a meeting on my behalf.At the moment, we are at the research institute in Kyoto, but usually, I work at Osaka University. If I remote control my android from Osaka, I don’t have to come to Kyoto myself, or I can even send it to Britain to attend a conference. The important thing is, my presence is there. Narrator: “Robotics has become one of the key industries in Japan helping to make its economy the second largest in the world, and Japan leads the way in developing humanoid robots. Soon robots like this may be working as office receptionists, security guards, or looking after Japan’s aging population.