Buddhist Monks Held A Funeral For 114 Outdated Robot Dogs
Indian Express- Around 114 of Sony’s outdated AIBO robot dogs were dearly departed and honoured with a traditional funeral at the Chiba Prefecture in Japan. The funeral was like any other held in Japan with incense smoke in the air and a priest chanting a sutra praying for the peaceful transition of the departed souls, a Japan Times report stated. Each of the old generation dogs was wearing a ta to show the place they came from and to which family they belonged to. Quite interestingly, the electronics repair company A-Fun Co, which is known to fix vintage products, has sent off around 800 AIBOs in a similar way over the past years. These defunct dogs will now be used to serve as organ donors for defective robots. However, before doing so, the company honoured them with a traditional send-off at a centuries-old Buddhist temple, according to an AFP report. The priest at the 450-year-old Kofukuji temple in Isumi, Tokyo elaborated on the concept of giving the funeral and dismissed that the idea of holding memorials for these machines is absurd.
You know what? Why the hell not. If some Buddhist monks have a little free time, let them hold a traditional Buddhist send off for a bunch of outdated robot dogs. Who’s to say who or what gets a funeral in the first place? It might seem weird to give inanimate objects a funeral but it’s just as strange that we give living things a funeral. Inanimate objects can hold meaning just as much as human beings. Those 114 robots dogs clearly meant something to someone.
I’ll tell you what, I know for a fact that I’ll be having a funeral for my coffee maker once it dies out. I’ve talked about it before but my coffee maker is one of the most important things in my life. We’ve been through so much together. It was with me when I was hammering out blogs when 14 people were reading them. I’d argue that me and my coffee maker have been through more than me and any of my friends or family members. Did any of my friends or family move across the country with me to New York? They sure as hell didn’t. Nobody even offered. Pretty rude in my opinion. My coffee maker though? My coffee maker didn’t hesitate. It hopped in that Uhaul and made the trek with me. It’s a ride or die mother fucker. You bet your ass its getting a funeral when that day comes.