| Robot Dog |
February 12, 2018
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| In this society, robot dogs were popular. [The first generation] One company made a robot dog. It was not so intelligent, but it attracted a lot of owners. Naturally, dogs are not so intelligent. They bark if they are starving. They bark when a stranger comes. People think they are smarter than other animals but in reality, they aren't. Because they are not so intelligent, people feel that they are cute. The biggest difference between a real dog and a robot dog is that the real dog is alive, of course. Because they are alive, people think that they need to be taken care of. And this is a good thing. The more the owners take care of their dogs, the more they feel intimate for the dog. But, dogs are not easy to raise. They eat, they pee, they poop, they demand to be walked outside. Sometimes, they need to be washed. People who didn't have either the time or the physical power to take care of a real dog bought a robot dog. Many owners felt intimacy toward their robot dogs. They moved awkwardly, but the owners thought that it was cute. The robot dogs reacted to the owner with simple commands. A decade had passed. The maker of the  robot dog stopped its production. For a while, the company accepted repairing, but eventually they finished all their services about the robot dogs. The company closed down.Usually, any goods have a certain longevity. For example, if it is a chair and it broke, you have two choices: to abandon it or to fix it. If you like it, you might want to have it repaired, but if it costs more than you expect, maybe you will not have it repaired. Also, it depends on the owners. If it has sentimental value, one would probably will repair it regardless of the cost. Some of the owners of robot dogs couldn't give up their robot dogs and begged the company to fix them. Usually companies won't accept these pleas, but the company's retired workers were kind enough to accept them, saying it was a token of how much their production had been loved. This was a lesson. It was learned that robot dogs were different from vacuum robots. [The second generation] Looking at the phenomena of the first robot dog, other companies which were developing robot dogs started to think about how to finish their robot dogs' life. In the case of a real dog, if a dog dies, the owner, after the sad feeling subsides, wants a new dog. This fits the idea of a business, reproduction. Also, before a natural death, a dog should show some signs. They might be very old or they might suffer from a severe disease. The owner has no choice but to accept it as its destiny. So one company decided the longevity for each dog in advance. The robot dog had a certificate that read, "This robot dog's life time is limited until Sept 15, in 20XX.", for example. When the expiration date came, many owners became uneasy and started to massage to the company to prolong the date, as he/she would pay extra money. The company politely declined it saying that a rule was a rule. One of the owners couldn't agree with it, and appealed it in a court of law. The company realized that there was a risk in such a decision. [The third generation] Another company thought about a different idea. They made each part of the robot dog weak. If the robot dog broke, the company fixed it at a certain price. They also made a health insurance system for them. And when their heart's part was broken, the company declared that they couldn't fix it any more. But, some rich owners insisted to do an operation on their dogs' heart at any cost. After all, the company couldn't refuse. Other owners appealed that this was unfair and it became big news. [The fourth generation] A different company gave up the idea to fix the robot dogs physically. A robot is a robot. If you change parts of a robot, they could live eternally. So, the company thought about having the robot dogs get old mentally. After a certain age, the robot dog started not to recognize the owner, and the reaction became calmer than before and at last it stopped to move. Their longevity was decided randomly and even the maker didn't know it. The owners could be sure of their robot dogs' last days through the process. They accepted it and they would hold a funeral ceremony with their family and friends. This way became the standard for robot dogs, and eventually funeral service companies for robot dogs became more prosperous than the makers. |
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*in reality :現実は
*the more ~, the more ~ :〜すればするほど、〜になる
*intimate :親近感を覚える
*pee :おしっこをする
*poo :ウンチをする
*awkwardly :ぎこちなく
*longevity :寿命
*abandon :見捨てる、放置する
*regardless :にかかわらず
*subside :おさまる
*expiration :満了
*eventually :最終的に
*prosperous :繁栄する