Twenty years ago, Honda's ASIMO had just learned to climb stairs, and the world thought that was the ceiling of technology. Twenty years later, the World Humanoid Robot Games have opened in China. Robots are breaking the 100-metre limit on the track, competing nimbly across the arena. Technology is moving faster than anyone imagined.
Watching this impressive leap leaves us no choice but to ask: when robots and AI surpass humans in both physical ability and intelligence, what will the future world look like? How much space will be left for us?
If most future jobs and skills can be replaced by machines, then real experience will be the only value left to human beings. And sport is the lifelong anchor children need now, today.
Every drop of sweat left in the dojo, the pain of falling and getting back up again in ukemi, the mutual respect of randori with an opponent, these are a real life that no cold chip or algorithm can ever replace.
The world is already counting down. While there is still time, let children step into judo and into sport. It is not only about building the body. It is about giving them back the soul and anchor that belong to human beings, in the intelligent world ahead.