9 Times The Simpsons Predicted The Future
6. Robots With Emotions
Librarian robots arent really news anymore - when youve got one petabyte (thats 1000 terabytes, storage denomination fans) of data to search through like the NAVA Tape Library in Budapest does, its kind of necessary - but the search for robots capable of perceiving and processing emotion continues apace.
Thats not to say that theres a little Johnny 5-a-like sat in a laboratory somewhere groaning WHY DID YOU PROGRAMME ME TO FEEL PAIN MASTER in a buzzy monotone, but there are certainly robots about these days which are capable of doing more than short-circuiting themselves with tears and bursting into flames before withering into a nub of molten plastic.
Pepper the robot was developed in Japan (obviously), costs $1600 and displays emotions (namely joy, surprise, anger, doubt and sadness) which are influenced by his touch sensors and onboard cameras. He'll even "audibly sigh when unhappy" according to tech website Quartz.
Perhaps wary of the warning which The Simpsons sent us from 1995, the team behind Pepper decided not to equip the miserable sod with tear ducts which might interfere with his ability to not explode and shower his human companions with white-hot metal shards.