Many people that know me are aware that I am fascinated by Japanese culture. I love the food, fashion, manga comics and their anime series. In their comics and anime a recurring theme is stories that refer to cyborgs. Cyborgs are robots that comprise both human and mechanical parts. Cyborgs because of their human parts can experience a wide range of emotions like love and sadness that are similar to human emotions. The models can be used as maids, companions, partners or they can be adopted children. There is one thing that these different models have in common; they are loyal. Of course this is fiction; a product of their imagination that is a popular theme in Japan.Today I read in the newspaper that Android Repliee Q2 was created in Osaka University. An android is a robot that resembles a human being and behaves in a human way. They can interact with people; they can respond to human touch and look like they breathe. Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro predicts that “as lifelike androids become cheaper and more sophisticated, some of their first uses will be as companions for the elderly and as guides for people in railways stations or museums”. It is still early but as his remarks refer to a near future we could foresee that cyborgs could be existent at a distant future.
Technology is advancing rapidly and even though I am positive on the advancement of technology in general I am skeptical on the android development. I feel that the Japanese obsession with cyborgs and androids has to a great extent do with the lack of human communication that is apparent in their vast culture. In all their stories the robots are loyal, respectful and fill a void in a human soul: that of companionship. When humans are abandoned or heart broken there is a cyborg there that will never leave by their side and that it will accept them for who they are.
People sense more and more the lack of communication amongst people and they feel incomplete. However, robot companionship could never replace human companionship. Something that can look, smell or act like a human is not a human being. Something that can obey our orders and act accordingly to our needs could never make us happy and complete as it lacks something very important: A human soul and free will.
(art by bluefley)
Many people that know me are aware that I am fascinated by Japanese culture. I love the food, fashion, manga comics and their anime series. In their comics and anime a recurring theme is stories that refer to cyborgs. Cyborgs are robots that comprise both human and mechanical parts. Cyborgs because of their human parts can experience a wide range of emotions like love and sadness that are similar to human emotions. The models can be used as maids, companions, partners or they can be adopted children. There is one thing that these different models have in common; they are loyal. Of course this is fiction; a product of their imagination that is a popular theme in 
