Waterless smart public toilet; toilet revolution!, part 3

October 29, 2019 @ 4:44 pm · Filed by under Artificial intelligence, Language and culture, Language and technology

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For nearly two years, we've been following the awesome Chinese toilet revolution.  See especially the last comment to this post:

"Toilet Revolution!!" (11/26/17)

But see also the follow-up posts listed in the "Selected readings" below.

In its frenzied race to catch up with the past of privies, it would appear that China has decided to make a Great Leap Forward into the future of lavatories.  So now we have the "waterless smart public toilet".

"Beijing's first waterless smart public toilet has been put into use", by Zhao Tong (People's Daily Online), October 29, 2019

Curious to know what the equivalent of "waterless smart public toilet" is in Mandarin, I read articles in Chinese here and here.

This miraculous device is called:

wú shuǐ zhìnéng gōngcè 无水智能公厕 ("waterless smart public toilet")

Similarly, a "smart phone" is a "zhìnéng shǒujī 智能手机" and "artificial intelligence" (AI) is "réngōng zhìnéng 人工智能" (lit., "man-made intelligence"), cf. Japanese jinkō chinō 人工知能 (note the subtle difference in the writing between Chinese and Japanese).

When it comes to 21st century Asian toilets, this is my favorite demonstration:

"How to use Eastern Latrine: Wilbur Sargunaraj" (8/8/10)

 

Selected readings

 

[Thanks to Jim Fanell, Chenfeng Wang, and Lin Zhang]

October 29, 2019 @ 4:44 pm · Filed by under Artificial intelligence, Language and culture, Language and technology


5 Comments

  1. david said,

    October 29, 2019 @ 7:29 pm

    Clivus Multrum has been in the composting toilet business since 1973.

    https://www.clivusmultrum.com/

  2. Philip Taylor said,

    October 30, 2019 @ 6:33 am

    Well, we had composting toilets at a scything fair I attended over 12 years ago, but more recently I had the mis-fortune to have to use an "eco-friendly toilet" which claimed to significantly reduce water usage but which in practice required ten flushes to remove all traces of fæcal matter …

  3. Mimi K. said,

    October 31, 2019 @ 3:57 am

    Chinese smart products are sometimes called 智能[product] and sometimes called 智慧[product]. The two terms usually mean the same thing when describing products, but are sometimes contrasted, where 智慧 indicates a level of sophisticated (maybe human-like) intelligence beyond 智能.

    For Chinese learners who associate 智慧 with the word "wise", it can feel funny to see 智慧 describing a product. It also results in some funny product names, especially when machine translation is involved. Once someone comes up with a toilet that truly understands user requirements, sensing your buttock temperature and the like, it will probably be called a 智慧公测 and we may be lucky enough to see "WISE TOILET" plastered around China.

  4. Mimi K. said,

    October 31, 2019 @ 3:58 am

    Oops, typo. 公厕, not 公测

  5. Victor Mair said,

    October 31, 2019 @ 6:28 pm

    "China to advance 'toilet revolution' in primary, secondary schools"

    Xinhua | Updated: 2019-10-31 16:10

    http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201910/31/WS5dba96f7a310cf3e35574bb3.html

    "Visitors encouraged to smell giant panda poo at Wuhan zoo"

    By Zhao Tong (People's Daily Online) 16:21, November 19, 2019

    http://en.people.cn/n3/2019/1119/c90000-9633703.html

    This is one of the most bizarre, scatalogical headlines in the history of official Chinese media!

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