Meet Fribo, a robot built for lonely young people

The Verge ^ | April 6, 2018 | James Vincent

[C19fan]

The number of people living alone is on the rise in the US and other developed nations, and it’s definitely not a good thing. Loneliness and isolation are bad for your health, physically and mentally, so it’s in societies’ interests to think about how we can bring people together. Many blame technology for this fragmentation, but could it also help? Researchers from Korea think so, and they have developed a prototype robot named Fribo that encourages young people to text and call one another. Unlike many other robots built for the home, Fribo is not intended to be social itself, but to instead foster socializing in others. Fribos are intended to be distributed in a group of friends’ houses, creating what researchers call a “virtual living space” that brings together individuals who are physically isolated.

[C19fan]

If I was still young would have much preferred the "Logan's Run" solution if one was lonely.

[PIF]

[miss marmelstein]

Young, single people have lived alone for decades now and somehow managed to find other people to talk to. What’s wrong with this generation?

[Chode]

that encourages young people to text and call one another.

somehow i don't see that as something that needs encouraging... maybe getting some exercise other than their thumbs would be a better idea

[Celerity]

What kind of fresh hell is this ?! What nightmare fuel !

So basically, if you don’t spend enough time with your phone, it is a case that wheels the phone over to you and encourages you to use it more.

It looks like an Edgar Allen Poe robot.

[Pollster1]

I’m disgusted with kids who need something like this, but it’s a whole lot better than technological substitutes for human interaction. Some people just have sad lives and no social skills, and they probably need this sort of support. With luck perhaps they even mature and grow up eventually.

[Larry Lucido]

I thought Freebo was a character in Dexter.

[Pearls Before Swine]

This reminds me of experiments from the 60's, where young monkeys were raised without their mothers, and were found to be very messed up in terms of their ability to interact with other monkeys when the time came. An intermediate experiment was done where, instead of their mothers, they had cloth surrogates wound around the nursing bottles and laced to the cage wall. These monkeys didn't do as well as the normally raised ones, but fared better than the ones that were totally isolated.

Here's your electronic monkey substitute mother!

[rlmorel]

Check out this video where the guy draws pictures on a white board while explaining what problems the Millennials have in the work place, and why they have those problems:

"Millennials in the Workforce, A Generation of Weakness" by Simon Sinek.

It is brilliantly done with really good animation.

I must warn: it is a 12 min video, and the first 10 min are brilliant, that last two minutes are BS. You will know what I mean.

[Celerity]

“I must warn: it is a 12 min video, and the first 10 min are brilliant, that last two minutes are BS. You will know what I mean.”

Yup, I got it the moment his software drew black lines that looked like he actually drew them.

You know why he didn’t draw them ? It takes too long. There is software to do that. Sooooo

This whole video is the usual BS about “Millenials”. What he describes is a unique little group of people called “EVERYONE” How many times have I heard “they got dealt a bad hand” from the cavemen to the explorers to the medieval Europeans to the dust bowl to even, for some reason, those of us born in the 70s.

I mean, come on. A bad hand ? Food is everywhere, shelter is easily had and we aren’t on the run from predators. We got it pretty sweet.

What this video tells us is that Millenials “were dealt a bad hand” because no one has designed an app that gives job satisfaction or meaningful (Meaninful, if you noticed his error when TYPING and not drawing) relationships.

This whole video is garbage. Denis Leary got it right. “SHUT THE F*** UP!. Next.”

[Celerity]

“I’m disgusted with kids who need something like this, but it’s a whole lot better than technological substitutes for human interaction.”

Funny story, I’m about to fire another millenial today.

He simply won’t show up for work. There is always something more important.

[Pollster1]

That’s sad. I am glad I’m no longer an employer. College graduate?

[HonkyTonkMan]

Sinek is overrated as a business writer.

[Bob]

And bottom line —

It’s not their fault; their parents raised them wrong.

It’s not their responsibility to fix the problem; it’s up to ‘the corporation’ to provide them the right leadership.

[I want the USA back]

If you’re lonely, having a robot in the house, plus texting, means your’re still lonely. It’s a f*cking machine!

[TheNext]

Then the spouse dies prematurely.
The surviving spouse then spends years disconnected and detached.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I think I saw this in one of the Superman movies.

[Celerity]

“That’s sad. I am glad I’m no longer an employer. College graduate?”

Yup ! And Navy veteran !

I’ve hired many older vets and they are amazing. Seriously, I can’t keep up with them. They need assistants because they are so in order.

But there are two younger vets that I work with that I can’t stand. They whine all the time and simply don’t work.

[Pollster1]

Mourning is entirely different from those who never grow up.

[Pollster1]

I interviewed a lot of college graduates I would never hire. Never interviewed a military veteran and college graduate who was not worth having. Some didn’t get the job, if there was an even better applicant, but it wasn’t unusual for me to call them back a year later and see if they would take my next opening. Times are changing, and not for the better.