Hornyak, Timothy N.

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Hornyak, Timothy N.

PERSONAL:

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Tokyo, Japan.

CAREER:

Journalist.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Junnosuke Imaizumi) Inside Out: A Mini Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture, Foreign Press Center/Japan (Tokyo, Japan), 2006.

Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots, Kodansha International (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Canadian journalist Timothy N. Hornyak, who covers science and technology stories from Tokyo, Japan, analyzes the Japanese penchant for robotics in his book Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots. The book details Japan's centuries-old fascination with automatons, dating from the Edo period (1600-1868), when karakuri dolls were fashioned to serve tea and performed elaborate acrobatic feats on stage. Unlike Western culture—which, despite its embrace of technology, often fears the consequences of technological change—Japan did not develop a cultural anxiety about robots. For the Japanese, Hornyak explains, robots are seen as welcome helpers, not sinister machines. What's more, Japan has come to depend on robots to help fuel its economy. Because of its low birth rate and hostility to immigration, the country expects to face significant labor shortages by the mid-2000s. Robots, it believes, can provide needed workers—not only in manufacturing but in many other areas as well. In an interview with Jonathan Skillings on CNet News, for example, Hornyak said that by 2016 Japan hopes to have built robots that can not only clean up hospital rooms and make beds but also lift and carry elderly patients.

Reviewers found Loving the Machine an engaging and fascinating book. Though Zack Davisson, writing in Seek Japan, felt that Hornyak oversimplifies the West's sensibility toward robots, he considered the book "otherwise excellent." Japan Times contributor Donald Richie described Loving the Machine as a "richly detailed, beautifully researched and highly interesting" work.