Robot performing Japanese funeral rites shows no one's job is safe

When the robot apocalypse comes, robots will be there to say a prayer over your frail human remains, thanks to Japan's Softbank. 

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That's the message from this week's Tokyo Int'l Funeral & Cemetery Show, where Softbank's Pepper robot demonstrated its ability to perform Buddhist funeral rites. 

Draped in traditional Japanese funeral garb, Pepper not only presided over a faux death ceremony, it also chanted Buddhist sutras, taking over the usual role of a human monk during such ceremonies. 

So far, Pepper isn't actually performing any real funeral rites, but Japan's Nissei Eco developed the funeral software for Pepper as an alternative when a Buddhist monk isn't available, or when the family can't afford the more expensive human practitioner (the service will cost about $450 versus the thousands of dollars usually spent for a human, according to CNBC).  Read more...

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