Core77

Following my recent writeup of Bruce Sterling on Design Futurism
here's an interview with Ian Pearson, Futurologist at British Telecom.

The BT Technology Timeline, which you co-wrote, predicts that androids will form 10% of the population in the next 10-15 years. Is this not all a bit Star Trek?
If you look at the Japanese market, you'll find that both Honda and Sony are making little androids already and they are not just doing that for fun. They are doing that because they seriously believe that they can sell millions of these things into the domestic market, for two main reasons. One reason is to do little jobs around the home, and the other one is companionship, and they really believe there are big markets for that.

So I apply some basic common sense - I know that Sony's not stupid, and neither is Honda, and they wouldn't be doing this if they had not done some very thorough analysis of the marketplace. Even without doing that myself, I can use their professionalism, as it were, to conclude that they have probably not got it that far wrong, and that there probably is a market for this kind of thing, and we probably will see these little androids all over the place.

[via Nicolas Nova]