Robots and horror and science, oh my!

I've mentioned before that the Miraikan is a cool museum. The name "National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation" promises cool if you think your way through it, but the Japanese name, "Future Hall" gets straight to the robots and aliens and semiconductors and deep sea exploring vessels. Which is what they have.

There are two special exhibits up now. And in a departure from the norm, I'm telling you about them while there's still time to actually go. (Don't get used to it.) One is on the science of fear. I'd like a t-shirt of the English subtitle, "Ghost in the Brain!" The line when we first walked past was indeed scary, but it had died down by the time we circled back. The exhibit is a haunted house, sort of, that plays on timely fears, winding through a lab with a slumped over technician, empty rat cages, and a spooky sick ward. There's a sciency section with good English explanations about why scary things are scary and why it's difficult to suppress fears, and then a nifty surprise.

The other exhibit is a fairly naked promotion for the upcoming Terminator 4 movie. Lots of dramatically lit original machines and costumes from the movies and posters about the special effects techniques. There's a theater running a loop of trailers for all the T films. And then, the part I went for, a corner about the future of robot-human relationships. Unfortunately, this part has zero English. It does have a chipper yellow Wakamaru that can shake hands and play rock, scissors, paper. There is also an eerie robotic arm in a glass case; at one end, perfect human fingers curl and open. At the other, wires hang out, attached to nothing. A worn-down slab of peachy rubber silicon meant to show how realistic robot skin feels makes the opposite point. Finally, the lady above. She's an Actroid made by Sanrio affiliate Kokoro. Somehow, with all the things in Japan with cute names, she (like her variety of robot counterparts) is called Actroid-DER. The first thing she says is, "Did you think I was a real human!?" Maybe a wobbly, rubber one...

This museum is also where Asimo hangs out. Go to Miraikan on the Yurikamome line.