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The Robo-Future is Here … With Your Turn-Down Service

Are you one of those who’ve been staunchly steering clear of all those techy thingamajigs and touch-tablet whiz-bangs? You know, maybe holing up in your grandmother’s Wi-Fi-free basement because you fear all those Hollywood future-apocalypse movies might just be right and someday robots will indeed take over the world? Well, if so, your biggest nightmare just happened.

A new hotel recently opened in Japan that’s manned totally by robots. And this isn’t some Disney-fied Hall of Presidents-like gimmick, either. This is an actual hotel with robot receptionists, robot bell hops, a robot concierge, and even little in-room robos that answer questions about the weather and hotel amenities, and switch off the lights and such. (I don’t think they put mints on your pillow or tuck you into bed at night, but hey, let them get rolling a bit.)

Want a quick tour? Check out this clip.

This robotic respite is located in the southern Japanese city of Sasebo and called the Henn-na Hotel, or the “Weird” Hotel in English. And Hideo Sawada, the actual human (or at least he appears to be human) who runs the place says that he believes this sort of thing might well be the wave of the future.

In fact, Japan is the world leader in robot technologies, and the government is trumpeting robotics as a pillar of its growth strategy. After all, bots can run endlessly, there’s no union to deal with and the chance of world domination is very minimal.

(OK, I added that last bit of commentary just to freak you out. Of course there’s a union.)