Gakutensoku

Gakutensoku(en.wikipedia.org)

39 points by benbreen 3 days ago | 5 comments

h_mirin 10 minutes ago |

I'm Japanese, and this is the first I've heard of Gakutensoku. If you asked people in Japan for an old Japanese "robot", I think most would come up with this tea-carrying karakuri doll. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karakuri_puppet

That one predates the word "robot" entirely. The design is documented in a 1796 book called "Karakuri Zui", so Edo period, shoguns still in charge.

tantalor 11 minutes ago |

Automaton

vintagedave 3 hours ago |

The Wikipedia page doesn't say: what happened to this robot?

> the details of its disappearance are unknown

A mystery! Someone will know...

vintagedave 2 hours ago | |

I can find references to:

* Appearance in Korea at an expo (1928, 1929?): https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=...

* The creator writing about it in 1931 (reference 10 on the same page)

Shanghai but uncertain date.

Was it dismantled in either Korea or China, or shipped back and dismantled, or destroyed?

aa-jv 2 hours ago | |

I like to think he's in some wealthy parlor somewhere, sequestered away, bringing mirth and humanity to an elite few who need it most of all.