> Japanese people really have a fundamentally different view on tech, tech is always a tool. We Westerners love the classic Terminator plot, the classic Asimovs laws gone bad plot (I, Robot). The Japanese use* tech, they sit in battle robots, they use it connect their consciousness directly to the internet. I love it.*
I think your conclusion is correct in the sense that the Japanese use tech enthusiastically, but very wrong in the assumption that the reason is that they just view it as a tool. If anything, they seem to anthropomorphize a lot more than Westerners. I once attended a lecture by a Japanese professor researching robotics who basically seemed to live by the idea that if his robots looked and appeared to behave human enough, they would magically "be" human. It made it look like the anthropomorphization of robots its perfectly normal even on academic levels over there. Also, note how until Boston Dynamics, the majority of (research) robots that resemble humans or animals came from Japan.
But paradoxically, I think the reason is that they view tech less like a tool - all things have spirits in Japanese Shintoism, right? Perhaps therein lies the paradox: maybe due to this, the idea of AI becoming self-aware is less scary - objects are already treated as having a "spirit" anyway!
I think the story of Roujin Z contains a very interesting example of this[0]. An old man becomes (unwilling) part of an experiment for robots designed to take care of the elderly. The robot then becomes a rampaging AI, which turns out to be because it's secretly a government experiment for re-arming Japan. Due to uploading the voice of the wife deceased of the old man, the AI also takes on the persona and becomes a caring (but still rampaging) AI.
Let me emphasize: only the old lady's voice is uploaded - which important because it implies anthropomorphized magical thinking: like Zhang's dragon coming to life when he gave it eyes[1], giving the AI the voice of a sweet old lady magically made it a sweet old lady.
So if we go back to generalising, I think the difference is that Westerners fear tech, with stories of AI turning against us, while Japanese people consider it a potential new friend. Making them much more enthusiastic about new technology.
I think your conclusion is correct in the sense that the Japanese use tech enthusiastically, but very wrong in the assumption that the reason is that they just view it as a tool. If anything, they seem to anthropomorphize a lot more than Westerners. I once attended a lecture by a Japanese professor researching robotics who basically seemed to live by the idea that if his robots looked and appeared to behave human enough, they would magically "be" human. It made it look like the anthropomorphization of robots its perfectly normal even on academic levels over there. Also, note how until Boston Dynamics, the majority of (research) robots that resemble humans or animals came from Japan.
But paradoxically, I think the reason is that they view tech less like a tool - all things have spirits in Japanese Shintoism, right? Perhaps therein lies the paradox: maybe due to this, the idea of AI becoming self-aware is less scary - objects are already treated as having a "spirit" anyway!
I think the story of Roujin Z contains a very interesting example of this[0]. An old man becomes (unwilling) part of an experiment for robots designed to take care of the elderly. The robot then becomes a rampaging AI, which turns out to be because it's secretly a government experiment for re-arming Japan. Due to uploading the voice of the wife deceased of the old man, the AI also takes on the persona and becomes a caring (but still rampaging) AI.
Let me emphasize: only the old lady's voice is uploaded - which important because it implies anthropomorphized magical thinking: like Zhang's dragon coming to life when he gave it eyes[1], giving the AI the voice of a sweet old lady magically made it a sweet old lady.
So if we go back to generalising, I think the difference is that Westerners fear tech, with stories of AI turning against us, while Japanese people consider it a potential new friend. Making them much more enthusiastic about new technology.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roujin_Z
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Sengyou (yes, I know, China is not Japan)