Robot Psychics Take India by Storm

Mechanical, Pre-Recorded Psychics Pop Up at Indian Fairs

This has to be, hands down, the strangest piece of news I’ve read this month.

A fleet of robotic fortune tellers have been deployed to various places in India, where those interested can plug in a pair of earphones and listen to pre-recorded bits of wisdom. They have the body of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots and are painted in Iron Man’s colors. I wonder if they’re a hit?

Discover reports:

As technology marches ever onward, robots have taken on more and more of life’s necessary jobs: heavy lifting, precise mechanical manipulations, and, of course, predicting the future.

Peppering the fairs and festivals of India, striking in their boldly colored if battered armor, are a fleet of robots that are part fortune cookie, part street-corner psychic. These bots wait in perpetual readiness to dispense their pre-programmed wisdom, and for only 5 rupees or so, the robot’s handler will allow you to plug a pair of headphones into its metallic underpants and listen as it tells your fortune.

The fortune-telling robots come in a range of shapes and sizes to best suit your fortune-telling needs (there is, in fact, a Flickr pool devoted to the various specimens). One of our favorite designs is the mod/retro combination of a smattering of LED lights and an analog clock, for those mortals bogged down in the worldly concerns of time (below).

The robots’ wisdom, apparently, comes on prerecorded tapes, audio fortune cookies that foresee the future in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, and Telgu. Not having heard the tapes ourselves—and not having any languages in common with the robots—we aren’t certain about the scope of these predictions. Do the robots whisper ticker symbols and stock market prices of the day after tomorrow? Do they speak of wars and famines, or the mundanities of day-to-day life? We wish we knew. Do you?

Robot psychics, of course, will never be a match for real ones. Get in touch with one now.

“A psychic is like the friend you turn to that is on the outside looking in to give you advice and guidance. The fun thing is, psychics can also see what lies ahead of you on your path, thus giving you the tools you need in order to move forward and have the best life for you that you can.” – Lacy ext. 5494

“The people I speak with stay in my prayers. I feel supportive of them as they go through each day.” – Tansy ext. 5289

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