When Sony released a robotic dog called AIBO in Tokyo in May of 1999, the first batch of 3,000 units sold out online in 20 minutes — and today, more than 800 of those same AIBOs have been given traditional Buddhist funerals at a 450-year-old temple in Chiba Prefecture, where a priest chants sutras for the peaceful transition of their souls

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Approximately 26 years after the small dog-shaped robots went on sale, the ones that stopped working are being given Buddhist funerals at a rural temple in Chiba Prefecture. The specific sequence of events that produced this outcome is one that essentially none of the Sony product managers who launched the AIBO in June 1999 had [...] The post When Sony released a robotic dog called AIBO in Tokyo in May of 1999, the first batch of 3,000 units sold out online in 20 minutes — and today, more than 800 of those same AIBOs have been given traditional Buddhist funerals at a 450-year-old temple in Chiba Prefecture, where a priest chants sutras for the peaceful transition of their souls appeared first on Space Daily .