As many of America’s great newspapers continue their decline into oblivion, one result is the cheapening of daily business sections, and especially the Monday business section.  Sometimes this leads to news that otherwise wouldn’t show up in the paper, including this morning’s Los Angeles Times article and sidebar on robots.  Much of the article has that “Japan’s in the lead again’ feel that pervades American stories on that nation’s technologies, but the sidebar’s recounting of Japan’s long love affair with robot-like devices is particularly interesting:

Japan’s love affair with robots could be said to be more than 300 years old. Wooden wind-up dolls known as karakuri appeared as early as the 17th century.

Especially famous is a kimono-clad tea-serving machine considered one of the world’s first “robots.” It carried a bowl of tea on a tray from the host to the guest, waited patiently until the guest replaced the bowl and then returned to the host.

Based on Western gun- and clock-making technology, these robots were designed as helpers or crowd-pleasers.

Speaking of crowd-pleasers, my favorite robot is the Roomba vacuum-cleaner robot from iRobot, the Burlington, Mass., company whose 2002 corporate milestones include a June search for terrorists in Afghanistan and the September launch of the Roomba.  Their website’s demo video is an unintentionally funny compilation alternating between a Roomba cleaning the house and various military robots speeding across unfriendly terrain, leaving one to think, if only they could sweep up in Afghanistan like they’re doing on that nice kitchen floor.  Or maybe that’s just me.