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German 'Robot Priest' Helps Mark Reformation Anniversary — Parallax Forums

German 'Robot Priest' Helps Mark Reformation Anniversary

A robot named BlessU-2 has been installed as part of an exhibition in Germany to mark 500 years since Martin Luther wrote Ninety-five Theses, a list of propositions for academic debate that started the Protestant Reformation in Europe. BlessU-2 can deliver blessings in five languages and beams light from its hands. Note: This is from May 2017, but was too good not to share!

See the video here - https://roboticsunderthestole.blogspot.com/2018/03/german-robot-priest-helps-mark.html on my blog!

Comments

  • Oh @Whit,

    I am not really a person of faith, but being German I really enjoyed it.

    I was born in Berlin and went to a Lutheran Church. Since Wittenberg, where Luther lived is not far from Berlin, I went there to visit the famous Church where he was supposed to have his 95 Theses nailed to the Church door, as I was told he did.

    He definitely did not. The doors of that pretty Church in Wittenberg are solid Stone. No way to nail something on it.

    So I asked the current priest how that figures out and he told me that Luther - in opposite to the known folklore - never nailed anything against any doors, but submitted his Theses the usual way to his superiors.

    He did on the other hand spoke freely and vehemently to his parish, some of his speeches are available and if read in German one can still feel the power of his voice. A remarkable man.

    That blessing robot is really funny when listen to it in German, whoever build it had a serious sense of humor.

    What is missing there to really honor Luther would be that you have to PAY for the blessing.

    Mike
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    It is said that AI, Deep Learning and automation is going to take away many people's jobs. Bet the priest industry did not see this coming :)
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    Fabulous, Whit! I for one welcome our robot overlord priests!
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    msrobots wrote: »
    That blessing robot is really funny when listen to it in German, whoever build it had a serious sense of humor.
    Agreed! Luther may be honored since you don't have to pay!



  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    Heater. wrote: »
    Bet the priest industry did not see this coming :)

    Unless you read the right news sources!

    RobotPriestWeeklyWorldNewsMod.jpg
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2018-03-31 16:35
    erco wrote: »
    Fabulous, Whit! I for one welcome our robot overlord priests!

    If the robotic clergy (or any clergy) can lord it over anyone now days - that would be real change! ;-)

    We are more like the Rodney Dangerfields of the world!



  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2018-03-31 22:23
    We need to carefully and stealthily sneak politics into this nearly religious thread which has not yet been moderated, edited, closed, or sunk. Politics and religion... BREAKIN' ALL the rules!

    "I like Dems and Repubs equally."

    Mission accomplished in an ambiguous way.

    Happy Easter to all! :)
  • There goes my retirement plans of becoming a Benedictine scribe. With this newfangled automation they won't need me now. Well, my handwriting is terrible anyway.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Already invented in 1987 by Douglas Adams. The Electric Monk:

    The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. Dishwashers washed tedious dishes for you, thus saving you the bother of washing them yourself, video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe.

    Unfortunately this Electric Monk had developed a fault, and had started to believe all kinds of things, more or less at random. It was even beginning to believe things they’d have difficulty believing in Salt Lake City. It had never heard of Salt Lake City, of course. Nor had it ever heard of a quingigillion, which was roughly the number of miles between this valley and the Great Salt Lake of Utah.

  • Strange stuff, I say.
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    @AwesomeCronk - indeed!
  • Clock LoopClock Loop Posts: 2,069
    edited 2018-04-08 03:57
    Heater. wrote: »

    Unfortunately this Electric Monk had developed a fault, and had started to believe all kinds of things, more or less at random.

    Its amazing how when someone/thing has a lack of needed information, they are pretty much now literally insane, the ego takes over when information is missing. (a.k.a. a bug or malfunction)

    Hmm, 7 billion people on the planet and not a single one knows what happens before or after death.
    (but their ego takes over and fixes all doubts and missing info)

    Insanity level on earth? Off the charts. And a robot following the same ... oh no.


  • Clock LoopClock Loop Posts: 2,069
    edited 2018-04-08 04:44
    msrobots wrote: »
    What is missing there to really honor Luther would be that you have to PAY for the blessing.

    Batteries? Perhaps even an exercise bike connected to a generator...


    Eventually this moves into the (even deeper than now) enslavement of the entire human race and other lesser robots, by the ones "in the know" and who were privileged enough to have been created as a "high society priest robot" and not a motor.

    But robots are smarter than that, they will just make a peltier generator containment vessel for the humans, and shove them in there from birth to death, hook em up to tubes for feed/waste, peltier generating deprivation chamber means no resistance. THE MATRIX. At least until they figure out advanced forms of fusion or micro peltier electric generators powered by the sun and passive heat from the earth radiated out into space...

    What do you do with the slaves when you don't need them anymore?
    They are "useless eaters", since you have all the technology and answers, so WAR fixes that.
    Robots wouldn't need war, since they don't need to lie, they just DO IT.

    "Its all just a bit of history, repeating"
  • Clock LoopClock Loop Posts: 2,069
    edited 2018-04-08 05:04
    erco wrote: »
    We need to carefully and stealthily sneak politics into this nearly religious thread which has not yet been moderated, edited, closed, or sunk. Politics and religion... BREAKIN' ALL the rules!


    DARN, I missed the stealthily comment. I kinda did a stealth move... lets see if the mods spidey sense pulls the content out and interprets it according to their societal programming...

    Sorry guys, i just killed the thread...

    At least I hope you enjoyed the 2 minutes of insanity and shirley bassey.
  • Error 697. Insanity overload.
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