Fido funeral: In Japan, a send-off for robot dogs

A funeral for broken toys, stupid. Next, vacuum cleaners and refrigerators.

not sure which is more useless, this or the robot that turns into a car

They could be easily repaired, most problems are motors or old batteries, you could replace them with 3rd parties.

Much much worse, mobile funerals, "she was a good phone, always willing to give me the time", "I remember one time and her alarm didn't go off, I was late for work, we laughed and laughed about that" I will never forget you forever my Galaxy. Boohoo, Boohoo.

Line editor, where are you? Arghhh!

The media fanfare did however prompt many owners of older models to look for ways to repair their faithful friends, or to donate those behind salvage.

its not always the actions taken, sometimes those don’t make sense when looked at individually.

Its often the thought process behind actions which show you values in a society. In this case the positive values of “respect” and “gratitude” are being shown if you put aside cynicism and actually think.

There are a lot of lonely people out there. Some, can't or won't have any contact with life outside of their own home.

Who are we to question what brings them happiness?

Me, I think it's time and money wizzed away.

But hey...whatever gets you through the night.

I think it's reasonable thing to do.

It's actually refreshing to discover those who purchased these products have a sense of spirituality.

The last thing we need are robots repaired with haunted parts!

With so much DIY tech available, it might be more fun to use the "corpse" to build a better Aibo. "We have the technology; we can rebuild him!"

All things have a bit of soul

He’s obviously never been to karaoke with my coworkers.

An AI robot has already been granted citizenship. so within the next 3-5 years we will have to seriously deal with issues that we may think as “silly” right now.

The media fanfare did however prompt many owners of older models to look for ways to repair their faithful friends, or to donate those behind salvage.

Attention from the media has seen owners of older models look at ways to repair their faithful friends, or to even donate those beyond salvaging.

21 million dogs. but people have robot dogs? 2 of my neighbours have abandoned dogs. just people are too lazy to take their dogs for toilet. if people are so lonely they need a robot dog, how about hanging out the library?

Where will them to be taken after this funeral? Never say scrapyard...

A funeral for broken toys, stupid...

It's a spiritual barrier between Japan and other worlds.

I'm Japanese. It's a pity that some people have a negative opinion. Not limited to machines, everything has a soul. They are NOT originally provided. If you take care of them or love them like your children, souls will sprout, even machine dogs. The reason for doing a funeral is to thank them heartily.

A funeral for broken toys, stupid...

No matter how long you live in Japan, no matter how well you speak Japanese, you will never feel inside of Japan until you understand it as spirituality not stupidity.

Seeing such frivolity actually makes me sad for Japan. It is just another sign of the decadence and senescence of Japanese society.