Friday, May 21, 2010

A Marriage Ceremony Was Once A Solemn Occasion

Recently I read an article in my newspaper about a large marriage ceremony in Japan…
 At first I said, “Self, ain’t that nice.”
 After I read on a bit of the article I said, “Self, that ain’t nice.”
 After the full impact of what I read had fully sunk in, I said to myself, “Self, that ain’t even legal … or is it?”

Here is part of the article of which I speak…
“TOKYO – Almost everyone stood when the bride walked down the aisle in her white gown, but not the wedding conductor, because she was bolted to her chair.
The nuptials at this ceremony were led by "I-Fairy," a 4-foot (1.5-meter) tall seated robot with flashing eyes and plastic pigtails. Sunday's wedding was the first time a marriage had been led by a robot, according to manufacturer Kokoro Co.
The wedding took place at a restaurant in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo, where the I-Fairy wore a wreath of flowers and directed a rooftop ceremony. Wires led out from beneath it to a black curtain a few feet (meters) away, where a man crouched and clicked commands into a computer.”

There you go again, dear reader. You think the Smartfella? has made all of this up. For the life of me, I don’t know why you would think I was capable of such foolishness.

Technology is changing the world around at an amazing speed. Not all of these changes are for the better. Not all of these changes make sense…
 We have “progressed” to the point where people will sit is coffee shops texting messages to people who are across the table from them.
 There are some amongst us who think, if a cell phone rings while they are in their homes, they must get into their cars and start driving before they can answer the phone.
 Some of us could always spell better than others of us. With the coming of Texting & Instant Messaging there is absolutely no attempt to spell correctly. Cute has replaced Correct.
 The word “punctuation” is not spelled correctly but many of our young people do not know what the word means (or used to mean).

Now we have robots taking over such used-to-be-important things as Performing Marriage Ceremonies. How long will it be before we see the likes of…
 Robots going on vacation for us because we are too tired to go ourselves.
 All forty plus members of the latest Super Bowl Championship Team are robots and their fanatical followers (painted from head to toe in their team colors) are proclaiming that football is better than ever.
 A team of robots taking the final exams at Brain Surgery University while the future brain surgeons drink beer is a nearby Jacuzzi.

Would I kid u?