Woody Hartzog brought this post from Evan Brown at Internet Cases to my attention.  It examines whether a marriage, actually performed by a robot in Japan, might be legal if performed in Illinois.   Reminds me of when Chris Stone asked whether a robot (or a tree) might have legal standing.  Here’s an excerpt:

[I]t may not be too hard to work around the robot problem. Just find a church out there to establish some prescriptions that don’t make the officiant an essential part. Then the robot ceremony could ostensibly be a side show, like the cutting of the cake or tossing of the bouquet.

I would add that further integration might be permitted were a licensed officiant to tele-operate or even program the robot.  Or if the officiant were the “captain” of an autonomous ship.  Or what if…