[ExI] stealth singularity

[Stuart LaForge]

Quoting Spike:

>
> Another compelling approach is to dispense with the human-likeness notion
> and create a non-human-form robot, such as an R2D2.  That could be made
> cheaply and have a single degree of freedom as the original R2 had.
> Dispense with the forward motion part (it needs to be rolled around on a
> wheelie cart by human assistance.)
>
> Plenty of the current elderly population were in their prime when the
> original Star Wars came out 43 years ago  R2 was a universal good guy.  It
> could be an updated version with a human voice rather than the whistles and
> honks that only C3PO could understand.
>
> That approach avoids the ethical concern that caregivers are automating
> emotional support by fooling impaired patients into thinking their
> mechanical companion is human.

I don't know if Howdy Doody is in the public domain after all this  
time but R2D2 currently belongs to Disney and they will sue our pants  
off if we use the likeness of R2D2 for our product. And if we try to  
officially license R2, then it will probably blow our budget and price  
point.

Here are some similar products on the market:
https://medicalfuturist.com/the-top-12-social-companion-robots


Stuart LaForge