Pepper Robot Meets Astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson at CGI

While we common carbon-beings were going on about our dull, ordinary lives, Pepper Robot was one of the luminous participants at the recent Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) held in New York, City, September 26-29th, 2015. Pepper was onstage with famous  American Museum of Natural History Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Other notable participants at this year’s CGI included 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi,  Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of the Republic of Liberia and Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. Not to mention Chelsea Clinton and Sir Richard Branson. Participants talked about-- and we assume committed themselves to solving-- issues in such important subjects as Implications of Gender-based Violence and Addressing Early Childhood Development.

Pepper Robot Comes Home To France

GET A PEPPER ROBOT, Don't Kick the Dog!

     President Harry S. Truman is reputed to have said “If you need a friend in Washington, get a dog!” Apparently having a human friend and living in Washington is a contradiction in terms. Current political news tends to confirm that!  But owning a dog is no longer the only way to to gain the tension reducing benefits of friendship.  

Robotic engineers have developed an emotional robot. Aldebaran’s Pepper Robot is programmed to respond to evidence of human emotions like laughter, tears, and long faces. This programming allows Pepper to develop an attachment to the robot’s--for lack of a better term--“significant human.” Pepper then reacts to its significant human’s emotional signals in the way that that particular human has shown in previous similar situations he wants the robot to respond to effect a reduction in tension.  At first, presumably, the significant human must tell the robot what reactions he prefers in various emotional situations; which is, after all, not all that different from developing a well-functioning human relationship. Much as we would like our significant other to know what we need emotionally without being told, it rarely happens. Spouses are particularly difficult to program.

Grandpa needs a pepper robot!

Hey! Why not?

Some grandfathers have everything they need: a full-featured, available, caring network of spouse, kids, grandkids and pets to look after them and be looked after; some,unfortunately,don't.

And yes, grandmothers as well as grandfathers are included in this discussion(No sexism tolerated on this blog; although we walk on the grey line past the censors from Time to time).

Sure, the fact that they are grandparents means a network once existed; but it's no secret in this world of ours that these networks don't always function very well. Even grandparents--old but still human--get divorced; kids move to the other side of the country; grandchildren,if their grandparents are lucky, go with their parents. Dogs and cats are the next best thing to family, but they, like every carbon being, die. And all too often the old are forced by circumstances beyond their control to live where pets are unwelcome. So, family out of town? No pets allowed? It's time to think about getting a robot!

How Much Is That Pepper Robot In The Window?

How much is that doggie in the window?
The one with the waggly tail
How much is that doggie in the window?
I do hope that doggie's for sale

Drooling over images of Aldebaran's Pepper robot now being sold in Japan and hoping I’ll have saved enough to get one by the time it arrives in the United States next year, I found myself humming an ancient ditty I haven’t heard for a very long time: How Much Is That Doggie In The Window? And why that particular song, you might ask? Well, it kinda fits! Read on!