Chit chat - Android paranoia
Finally, the news we all feared was going to come one day. Actors are obsolete.
Having perfected animatronic dancers, house-sitters and cleaners, those rather brainy chaps over in Japan - gawd bless’um - have come up with an acting robot.
The ‘droids are appearing in a new play called Hataraku Watashi (I, Worker) and, okay, they still need human colleagues performing opposite them to function, but give it a few years…
Apparently, the machines speak specially programmed lines and move around the stage interacting with the human actors. The play focuses on a young couple who own two housekeeping robots, one of which loses its motivation to work.
At the moment the production is only 20 minutes long, but there are plans for a full-length version in the near future.
The machine, which by day works as a mechanical house-sitter and secretary, is made by Mitsubishi.
Its name? Robot de Niro.
Okay, Tabard made that last bit up.
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