The South Korean people really love robots. Industry in South Korea receives millions in government subsidies to develop them. Recently, Park Hye-Young, of the South Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy?s robot team, said in a statement to French Press Agency that the Ministry hoped ?to have a robot in every South Korean household between 2015 and 2020,? and predicted that these robots would develop ?strong intelligence.?
South Koreans are not the only ones embracing robots. Already iRobot, a company founded by Rodney Brooks, director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, has sold at least two million Roombas, a little robotic vacuum cleaner. The promise of the robot vacuum and its cousins is that the home robot will become faster, more reliable, and more cost-effective than human domestic work. It has to get this ?strong intelligence? part down first. My Roomba is a one-trick pony, sucking dirt while rolling...