Robot priest unveiled in Germany to mark 500 years since Reformation

BlessU-2, which delivers blessings in five languages, is intended to trigger debate about the future of the church

Five hundred years after revolutionary printing presses spread news of Martin Luther’s radical call for church reform across Europe, technology is again challenging religious tradition in the small German town of Wittenberg.

A robot priest that delivers blessings in five languages and beams light from its hands has been unveiled as part of an exhibition to mark the anniversary of the start of the Reformation, a Europe-wide religious, political and cultural upheaval sparked when Luther nailed his 95 theses to a church door in the town.

Half a millennium later, the robot, called BlessU-2, is intended to trigger debate about the future of the church and the potential of artificial intelligence.

“We wanted people to consider if it is possible to be blessed by a machine, or if a human being is needed,” Stephan Krebs of the Protestant church in Hesse and Nassau, which is behind the initiative, told the Guardian.

The robot has a touchscreen chest, two arms and a head. For the past 10 days it has offered blessings in a choice of German, English, French, Spanish or Polish. Worshippers can choose between a male or female voice.

The robot raises its arms, flashes lights, recites a biblical verse and says: “God bless and protect you.” If requested, it will provide a printout of its words. A backup robot is available in case of breakdown.

“The idea is to provoke debate,” said Krebs. “People from the street are curious, amused and interested. They are really taken with it, and are very positive. But inside the church some people think we want to replace human pastors with machines. Those that are church-oriented are more critical.”

Krebs and his colleagues are collecting responses for further analysis but he did not anticipate robots presenting a solution to a Europe-wide shortage of priests. A robot “could never substitute for pastoral care”, he said. “We don’t want to robotise our church work, but see if we can bring a theological perspective to a machine.”

The Wittenberg exhibition commemorates the anniversary of political and religious convulsions across Europe in the 16th century, resulting in the greatest schism in western Christianity and a string of religious wars.

Luther’s theses, written in Latin, fundamentally challenged the authority and elitism of the Roman Catholic church.

BlessU-2 is not the first robot to penetrate the world of faith. Last year, a Buddhist temple on the edge of Beijing developed a robot monk that could chant mantras and and explain basic tenets of the religion.


These sinners are going to be punished in Hell for their crimes.

theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/30/robot-priest-blessu-2-germany-reformation-exhibition

Looks like something out of Dr. Who.

Very few people will care about this in the long run, no matter how much the creator wants popularity. The reality is, people aren't going to a priest for some physical commodity with exact specifications, they are going for emotional comfort. Asking "Can priests be automated?" is a lot like asking "Can my next door neighbor be automated?". Since most of the value you receive from that person is immaterial, there is very little to gain by automating it.

This does not fucking trigger debate about the "potential of artificial intelligence" nor the future of a church.

It's a dumb ass publicity stunt and nothing else, we get enough of this kind of shit from feminists and modern "artists".

I wonder if instead we make robots that look like angels that run templeOS be protectorate of the church from the Muslims.
That will prevent them from attacking places of worship.

futurama irl

silly protestants

Please tell me they named it the Electric Monk.

This is the most evil and profane thing that man has ever created.

Should have,
Order 65: smash those filthy saracenes.

wrong board, sorry.

Robots have no sin and can follow the word of god perfectly.

Were it not for the fact that bugs in any complex program are inevitable. Oh hey, kinda like with people.

...

Why do people write sentences.

On a new line.

With one line of spacing between them?

What kind of mental illness makes these people compelled to copy paste news articles like this?

I mean those articles are mostly formatted correctly.

Only a line of space between paragraphs.

And a paragraph usually consists of more than one line.

Unless the writer chose to make an exception to emphasize his point he is trying to make.

I know there are news articles written like this.

But those news articles are written usually for the impaired or children.

And only consists of maximum 7 or 8 lines.

Because a whole article formatted like this.

Is simply unreadable.

And shows how little effort the faggot OP is making to produce these threads.

I bet it's someone who is in prison.

And all he can do all day is browse imageboards and copy paste articles.

I bet he even keeps the score of how many threads he makes.

I've been on imageboards long enough to know how people can become obsessed with "producing threads".

Anyhoo.

OP is a faggot.

And I already did more effort writing this than he does all day copy pasting articles.

btw, I think these threads should be banned.

And OP should kill himself.

It's a protestant robot, only the Pope can call in a crusade.

Reminder that robots don't have souls.
Robots can't goto heaven.
Robots have no authority to speak the word of god

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because actual paragraphs look like walls of text to retarded babbies on their 640x480 4" mobile phone screens

:heavengoto heaven
I think you owe the robots your tribute pleb

wow, lain put on a lot of weight

but they aren't celibate

That image is supposed to say 'silicon heaven,' right? Silicone heaven would be where dragon dildos go when they die.

reminds me of THX-1138
creepy af

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