The robots first approached in a procession wearing name tags and Christmas hats to appear more relatable. The remote pilots spoke to us through microphones and could see our reactions of awe in detail through cameras in their foreheads. It was a simple exchange, but devastating once it sank in that our waiter was completely paralyzed and, in his daily life, could only communicate through eye movement and a screen. He saw us take cups of coffee from the robotic surrogate of his body.

He moved on magnets to the kitchen and said hello to other customers on his way. It was overwhelming to receive attention from a robot temporarily housing the soul of a paralyzed man. We couldn’t tell what he felt about the exchange as he operated a small plastic body from his bed somewhere in Tokyo. The robot shell was a one-way mirror. He may have been feeling jealous of the families in the cafe or finally less lonely for seeing so much eye contact. He might just have been happy to have co-workers again even if they all were housed in similar looking shells.

We were making a lot of assumptions as we drank the coffee he handed out and tried to think of questions to ask the plastic envoy separating us from someone in a complex and potentially lonely situation. A family next to us was starting a dialog with their child about disabilities, which was hopeful. The founders and engineers behind Dawn Cafe had all experienced disabilities and one had even succumbed to a longstanding disease. Their empathetic efforts had managed to highlight hopes for a robot-reliant future. Rather than using robotic technology to eliminate the need for humans, their focus turned to robots as conduits for more inclusion of the differently abled.

In attempting a robot pop-up that consists of unheard voices rather than the sparkle of new technology, the Dawn Cafe founders are promoting a warmer future where fully paralyzed patients are able to socialize as waiters or customers in coffee shops. It’s a humane version of the singularity where people are replaced by robots by choice and enjoy new freedoms in their proxy bodies. As the technologies behind robotic applications expand, the breadth of applications might hopefully follow. Dawn Cafe may be leading the way in robot/human partnership potential today, but I hope we see more of these technologies being geared towards inclusion as we become more reliant on robots.