Would you have a Waifu?
Talks in the Tavern in the Empire with the Froggy Bro often turns weird as discussions on internet service suddenly into waifus. You might be wondering what the hell is a waifu and its urban definition is:
A term coined by Otaku and Weeaboo alike for their 2D significant others; predominantly anime and video game characters. A Waifu, in contrast to a harem, is the love between one man and his one and only Waifu. You treat your Waifu with the utmost respect and courtesy and most refuse to even fap to their beloved, seeing the act as an insult to the non-existent woman they have committed themselves to.
[I am not making this definition up and well aware of what is being said and my jaw dropped as well]
So there is this product by Gatebox.ai that functions like Apple's Homekit or Google Home but with a 3D projection of a character in a pod-like container that looks like a young anime woman (no husbando yet - male version of a waifu)
Looking at the product line you have three choices
Aikuma Hikari
This is your typical waifu form which is going for the maid/master genre.
Aragaki Aya
The little sister genre which is prevalent in a lot of anime and manga genre is being presented here.
Hatsune Miku
This explores the Japanese Idol genre and is already a famous character in Japan and so the integration in this product is expected.
Video of Gatebox.ai on its virtual home robot.
Regardless of what character you choose their main function is to provide engagement and companionship by greeting a person in the morning, setting reminders, being connected to your smart appliances and home so that it is said that it can turn on lights and aircon. Note sure on making dinners though.
The video shows that it can even send messages and respond to it. I am thinking that it can be programmed like a chat box and respond to certain questions and would have a variety of answers depending on the mood, time, situation and even word choices used by the master owner.
Most people would laugh and ridicule people that would buy this aside from the novelty of it. Yet we have to understand a fundamental problem in Japan.
Hikikomori
They call them the missing millions. This line was even used in the Book and Movie Ready Player One to describe a phenomenon that happened in Japan in which more than 500,000 teenagers to young adults became reclusive and literally means ‘to withdraw from society’.
Due to the high pressure in both education and work some people may choose to become hermits and recluses who refuse to go out their house and some worst cases to not leave their room and have their family support them.
This whole matter of avoiding people and their high expectations is often triggered by their anxiety to be failures, post-traumatic syndrome of something bad that happened to them or even because they find no motivation in the real world and retreat to the safety and joy that they feel in playing video games to reading comic books.
This escapist mental state throws away all expectations and hope that they have. Their life goals set aside because of the fear and anxiety they feel as they are being pressured by their family, friends and even society to become contributing members of the nation.
This intense pressure makes a lot of people snap and just want to hide away. Below is a great video detailing this phenomenon.
I feel a strong resonance to the missing million because on the 2nd time I suffered a major depression episode I shut myself in my room for a year and lived off Oreo cookies and video games.
Nothing could move me to go out. Not family, nor friends and even lovers because I just wanted to be alone and play games, effectively shutting out the world, all its drama and issues and do something that I love and know it will not disappoint or put undue pressure on me.
The snap was the death of my father and it really took a toll on my mental resilience and by hiding away that was my means of keeping my sanity.
Eventually, though I managed to reintegrate into society, writing made a huge difference in my mental state.
I grew up and started being an adult. Sometimes I still get anxiety attacks and I have tendencies to lock myself up but somehow I keep that in check and not yet succumbed to it again.
Would I get to that point of getting a Waifu? I cannot say it is final as there are just so many factors but right this instance the answer would be no because I value human connections, creating deep human relationships. I still enjoy the company of people.
Yet things change. That is the only thing constant with life so I don't really know 10-20 years now how relation dynamics may change with humans and technology. I will not get into Robots and sex robots ala West-World like settings.
How about you would you get one?
Sources:
https://gatebox.ai/
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Waifu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori
https://documentarystorm.com/japan-the-mystery-of-the-missing-million/
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Would you get one? No, not now nor never.
I have seen this before and I still can't believe that this is something totally accepted. Lets just replace the human beings with robot stuff because people are too scared to talk to another person. How about we teach the people on how to be a bit more social. Teach them how to talk and express. I know for myself, I may not be the most social person ever but I still enjoy the values of having people in my life. That robot will not be with you in the streets to enjoy coffee with, will not save your ass when being robbed, will not .... bah.... sorry this pisses me off.
My mon was in that depressive state for almost 2 years, when my younger brother died. It will be 4 years in August. 2 years is a long time when you are well over 70 😥
Getting a Waifu? no.
A digital personal assistant, with AI? Probably No, as well. But mainly because it could be hacked, or become "HAL"-like and take over?
🤣
I can't remember when exactly, but I saw this (I think) when it first came out. At the time, and just now as I watched the video again, thought to myself, "What a lonely existence."
I've been aware of the missing generation, and I think there's some other factors in Japan that make human companionship more complicated, but the next thought after the first this time around was, "This isn't helping."
I've never personally experienced the overwhelming need to lock myself away from the world for a year, but I do know what it feels like to experience a lot of stress and some anxiety. At the age I am now, most of that is less than it has been.
We have an Echo and some Echo Dots that I bought for Christmas the previous year. I like the convenience of asking it questions, especially when I don't have a computer nearby to check what I want to know. I also like the fact that I can get the lights or the television turned on and off from across the room from a light switch or a remote.
But I don't think of the Echo as a companion. I don't think of it liking or disliking me. I think of it as another device, another step up in technology, one I've been looking forward to since the first science fiction book or movie where voice activation was a thing.
So, I guess I'm all for the idea of convenience, but the rest, the "knowing someone is waiting for me at home," thing. I guess it would interesting to know how many times having such an AI or robotic companion acts only as a fill gap until actual human companionship gets established, or if it only compounds the issue.
I'm glad my deep waifu knowledge inspired you to write a post about it!
Normies without waifus should just go die or something, waifus are love, waifus are life!
It's not like I like your or anything, baka!
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This is so interesting yet so scary as well. Either its the fault of education or society that has made people retreat and that in itself is super scary, what would happen to a country if that many retreat into their rooms never to be seen again..
It's coming and if you have seen Blade Runner 2049 Ana de Armas won't be so bad lol. But seriously there would be a lot of people who would go for this and would just evolve even further science fiction is just around the corner. Personally my opinion if integrated to home automation and management is quite amazing other than that in regards to emotional needs we have our family and friends for that.
Crazy stuff Mav! I mean its kind of appealing, but I am a very physical girl so I probably couldn't stand only having a vr significant other.
This reminded me of the new Blade Runner, that girly seemed pretty real...
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