Robosapien V2 Review

I and others I have spoken with have noticed two distinct groups of people when it comes to how people respond to the Robosapien V2. Obviously there are all kinds of shades of grey between the two groups, but the dividing line seems to be between those that love the Robosapien V2 and those that hate it and others of it's kind ; like the Roboraptor and the Robopet. Fortunately the fans of the robot(s) far outweigh it's detractors, but the detractors are usually quite fierce in their disappointment.

I have thought about this a lot and I have come to a conclusion, a conclusion that is purely my opinion. I think many people are suffering from the notorious Star Trek Expectations Syndrome. This syndrome is frequently seen in the artificial intelligence field when a new invention is exposed to the public. The Star Trek Expectations Syndrome is when a person's expectations of what a new technology should be able to do, reaches the level of what they've seen in a science fiction movie. When speech recognition first came out, and could only handle a small vocabulary of carefully spoken words by a single speaker, some people booed and hissed because it wasn't like talking to a person. I think the same thing is happening now with the toy and small consumer robots that have finally come to market, popularized by pioneers like Mark Tilden and iRobot.

Those who view the Robosapien V2 as a toy are thrilled by it, because they compare its advanced capabilities to other toys. Those that compare it to the android Data on Star Trek : The Next Generation, or the robot from Lost In Space, are bitterly disappointed.

I can almost hear their sad refrain, like that commercial on TV, "Where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars!!".

Hey everybody! Try to the view the world with the perspective of a child again, when playing with these new toy robots. They'll grow up soon enough, frighteningly or thrillingly fast depending on your perspective.