“The ‘Bots Are Coming For The Priests”

Via Global Macro Monitor,

Good, God!

• A mechanical ‘priest’ has recently begun conducting Buddhist prayers in Japan. It is not the first attempt to deliver religious teachings and advice through the use of a programmed machine.

• And Catholic Christians may soon find spiritual advice from a tiny 40-cm robot SanTO, developed by Gabriele Trovato, a roboticist and assistant professor at Japan’s Waseda University, after Trovato finishes perfecting his device in Peru.

• In Germany, there is a BlessU-2 robot that looks like a hybrid between an ATM terminal and US comic Jeff Dunham’s puppet of Ahmed the Dead Terrorist. The robot is reportedly designed to engage in philosophical debates about the future of religion and the potential of artificial intelligence.  – Sputnik International

Just think of the coming spike in moral dilemmata.

Here’s one, for example.

1. Does confessing sins of adultery with a sex robot to a robotic priest absolve you of sin?

2. Is the affair with the robot adultery?