Just Looking ...

And when it comes to Japan versus America on the issue of robots, I also find it fascinating that these are 2 vastly different attitudes held towards robots. While Japan has tended to make robots in the vision of robots as friends (and as such, have robots which look like humans or pets, and serve a certain social function), America, on the other hand, has produced robots in the vision of robots as tools (such as military robots). And while both countries continuously challenge the boundaries of robotics, I feel that (or at least, to my ignorance about America's advances in robotics) there is still seemingly a very cautionary tone adopted by America when it comes to creating robots. Certainly, popular culture in America often reflect this fear in movies or television, although one may argue that movies such as Wall-E are starting to change this attitude held towards robots in general. Japan seems to be far less cautionary and in fact, continuously challenge these limitations as to what humans can re-create; popular culture in Japan, in turn, reflects this. How did these differences come about? For a start, I think these might be useful in revealing the fundamental differences in which we approach robots and clones, and what it says about us:

Loving the Machine
In Japan, Robots are People Too
Loving the Machine: the Arts and Science of Japanese Robots