To celebrate 500 years of Martin Luther’s Reformation, a protestant church in Germany is showcasing a “robotic reverend” who delivers blessings to church-goers in not one or two but five languages. The robot, known as BlessU-2, is apparently in line with Luther’s radical call for reform in churches that took place five centuries ago.
Armed with a touchscreen chest, it lets you pick between a male and female voice, and offers blessings in German, English, French, Spanish and Polish. In surreal fashion, BlessU-2 also raises its arms to shine a beam of light on its followers. There, you’ve just been blessed by a machine (video above).
“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 The Guardian. “The idea is to provoke debate. 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,” he said.
The German robot is not the first of its kind to bridge the gap between technology and religion. In 2016, a Buddhist temple in China showcased a two-feet tall robot monk (video below), who answered simple questions about the faith.
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