Culturally Sustainable Social Robotics

Culturally Sustainable Social Robotics PDF

Author: M. Nørskov

Publisher: IOS Press

Published: 2021-01-04

Total Pages: 704

ISBN-13: 1643681559

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The subject of social robotics has enormous projected economic significance. However, social robots not only present us with novel opportunities but also with novel risks that go far beyond safety issues. It is a potentially highly disruptive technology which could negatively affect the most valuable parts of the fabric of human social interactions in irreparable ways. Since engineering educations do not yet offer the necessary competences to analyze, holistically assess, and constructively mitigate these risks, new alliances must be established between engineering and SSH disciplines, with special emphasis on the humanities (i.e. disciplines specializing in the analysis of socio-cultural interactions and human experience). The Robophilosophy Conference Series was established in 2014 with the purpose of creating a new forum and catalyzing the research discussion in this important area of applied humanities research, with focus on robophilosophy. Robophilosophy conferences have been the world’s largest venues for humanities research in and on social robotics. The book at hand presents the proceedings of Robophilosophy Conference 2020: Culturally Sustainable Social Robotics, the fourth event in the international, biennial Robophilosophy Conference Series, which brought together close to 400 participants from 29 countries. The speakers of the conference, whose contributions are collected in this volume, were invited to offer concrete proposals for how the Humanities can help to shape a future where social robotics is guided by the goals of enhancing socio-cultural values rather than by utility alone. The book is divided into 3 parts; Abstracts of Plenaries, which contains 6 plenary sessions; Session Papers, with 44 papers under 8 thematic categories; and Workshops, containing 25 items on 5 selected topics. Providing concrete proposals from philosophers and other SSH researchers for new models and methods, this book will be of interest to all those involved in developing artificial ‘social’ agents in a culturally sustainable way that is also – a fortiori – ethically responsible.

Cultural Robotics: Social Robots and Their Emergent Cultural Ecologies

Cultural Robotics: Social Robots and Their Emergent Cultural Ecologies PDF

Author: Belinda J. Dunstan

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-05-11

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 3031281381

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This edited collection approaches the field of social robotics from the perspective of a cultural ecology, fostering a deeper examination of the reach of robotic technology into the lived experience of diverse human populations, as well as the impact of human cultures on the development and design of these social agents. To address the broad topic of Cultural Robotics, the book is sectioned into three focus areas: Human Futures, Assistive Technologies, and Creative Platforms and their Communities. The Human Futures section includes chapters on the histories and future of social robot morphology design, sensory and sonic interaction with robots, technology ethics, material explorations of embodiment, and robotic performed sentience. The Assistive Technologies section presents chapters from community-led teams, and researchers working to adopt a strengths-based approach to designing assistive technologies for those with disability or neurodivergence. Importantly, this section contains work written by authors belonging to those communities. Creative Platforms and their Communities looks to the creative cross-disciplinary researchers adopting robotics within their art practices, those contributing creatively to more traditional robotics research, and the testing of robotics in non-traditional platforms such as museum and gallery spaces. Cultural Robotics: Social Robots and their Emergent Cultural Ecologies makes a case for the development of social robotics to be increasingly informed by community-led transdisciplinary research, to be decentralised and democratised, shaped by teams with a diversity of backgrounds, informed by both experts and non-experts, and tested in both traditional and non-traditional platforms. In this way, the field of cultural robotics as an ecological approach to encompassing the widest possible spectrum of human experience in the development of social robotics can be advanced.

Japanese Robot Culture

Japanese Robot Culture PDF

Author: Yuji Sone

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-12-17

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1137525274

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Japanese Robot Culture examines social robots in Japan, those in public, domestic, and artistic contexts. Unlike other studies, this book sees the robot in relation to Japanese popular culture, and argues that the Japanese ‘affinity’ for robots is the outcome of a complex loop of representation and social expectation in the context of Japan’s continuing struggle with modernity. Considering Japanese robot culture from the critical perspectives afforded by theatre and performance studies, this book is concerned with representations of robots and their inclusion in social and cultural contexts, which science and engineering studies do not address. The robot as a performing object generates meaning in staged events and situations that make sense for its Japanese observers and participants. This book examines how specific modes of encounter with robots in carefully constructed mises en scène can trigger reflexive, culturally specific, and often ideologically-inflected responses.

Cultural Robotics

Cultural Robotics PDF

Author: Jeffrey T.K.V. Koh

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-07-26

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 3319429450

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This LNAI 9549 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Workshop in Cultural Robotics 2015, held as part of the 24th International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication held in Kobe, Japan, in August/September 2015. A total of 12 full papers and 1 short paper were accepted from a total of 26 initially submitted. The following papers are organized into four categories. These categories are indicative of the extent to which culture has influenced the design or application of the robots involved, and explore a progression in the emersion and overlap between human and robotic generated culture.

The American Robot

The American Robot PDF

Author: Dustin A. Abnet

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 022669271X

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"As Dustin Abnet shows, the robot-whether automaton, Mechanical Turk, cyborg, or iPhone, whether humanized machine or mechanized human being-has long been a fraught embodiment of human fears. Abnet investigates, moreover, how the discourse of the robot has reinforced social and economic inequalities as well as fantasies of social control. "Robots" as a trope are not necessarily mechanical but are rather embodiments of quasi humanity, exhibiting a mix of human and nonhuman characteristics. Such figures are troubling to dominant discourses, which cannot easily assimilate them or identify salient boundaries. The robot lurks beneath the fears that fracture society"--

Robots in American Popular Culture

Robots in American Popular Culture PDF

Author: Steve Carper

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2019-06-12

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 1476670412

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 They are invincible warriors of steel, silky-skinned enticers, stealers of jobs and lovable goofball sidekicks. Legions of robots and androids star in the dream factories of Hollywood and leer on pulp magazine covers, instantly recognizable icons of American popular culture. For two centuries, we have been told tales of encounters with creatures stronger, faster and smarter than ourselves, making us wonder who would win in a battle between machine and human. This book examines society's introduction to robots and androids such as Robby and Rosie, Elektro and Sparko, Data, WALL-E, C-3PO and the Terminator, particularly before and after World War II when the power of technology exploded. Learn how robots evolved with the times and then eventually caught up with and surpassed them.

Anatomy of a Robot

Anatomy of a Robot PDF

Author: Despina Kakoudaki

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2014-07-07

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 0813572762

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Why do we find artificial people fascinating? Drawing from a rich fictional and cinematic tradition, Anatomy of a Robot explores the political and textual implications of our perennial projections of humanity onto figures such as robots, androids, cyborgs, and automata. In an engaging, sophisticated, and accessible presentation, Despina Kakoudaki argues that, in their narrative and cultural deployment, artificial people demarcate what it means to be human. They perform this function by offering us a non-human version of ourselves as a site of investigation. Artificial people teach us that being human, being a person or a self, is a constant process and often a matter of legal, philosophical, and political struggle. By analyzing a wide range of literary texts and films (including episodes from Twilight Zone, the fiction of Philip K. Dick, Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go, Metropolis, The Golem, Frankenstein, The Terminator, Iron Man, Blade Runner, and I, Robot), and going back to alchemy and to Aristotle’s Physics and De Anima, she tracks four foundational narrative elements in this centuries-old discourse— the fantasy of the artificial birth, the fantasy of the mechanical body, the tendency to represent artificial people as slaves, and the interpretation of artificiality as an existential trope. What unifies these investigations is the return of all four elements to the question of what constitutes the human. This focused approach to the topic of the artificial, constructed, or mechanical person allows us to reconsider the creation of artificial life. By focusing on their historical provenance and textual versatility, Kakoudaki elucidates artificial people’s main cultural function, which is the political and existential negotiation of what it means to be a person.

Cognitive Robotics

Cognitive Robotics PDF

Author: Hooman Samani

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2015-10-16

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1482244578

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The kimono-clad android robot that recently made its debut as the new greeter at the entrance of Tokyo's Mitsukoshi department store is just one example of the rapid advancements being made in the field of robotics.Cognitive robotics is an approach to creating artificial intelligence in robots by enabling them to learn from and respond to real-worl

Culture and Human-Robot Interaction in Militarized Spaces

Culture and Human-Robot Interaction in Militarized Spaces PDF

Author: Dr Julie Carpenter

Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published: 2016-01-28

Total Pages: 171

ISBN-13: 1472443136

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Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel are some of the most highly trained people in the military, with a job description that spans defusing unexploded ordnance to protecting VIP’s and state dignitaries. EOD are also one of the first military groups to work with robots every day. These robots have become an increasingly important tool in EOD work, enabling people to work at safer distances in many dangerous situations. Based on exploratory research investigating interactions between EOD personnel and the robots they use, this study richly describes the nuances of these reciprocal influences, especially those related to operator emotion associated with the robots. In particular, this book examines the activities, processes and contexts that influence or constrain everyday EOD human-robot interactions, what human factors are shaping the (robotic) technology and how people and culture are being changed by using it. The findings from this research have implications for future personnel training, and the refinement of robot design considerations for many fields that rely on critical small group communication and decision-making skills.

Robots in Popular Culture

Robots in Popular Culture PDF

Author: Richard A. Hall

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2021-07-12

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1440873852

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Robots in Popular Culture: Androids and Cyborgs in the American Imagination seeks to provide one go-to reference for the study of the most popular and iconic robots in American popular culture. In the last 10 years, technology and artificial intelligence (AI) have become not only a daily but a minute-by-minute part of American life—more integrated into our lives than anyone would have believed even a generation before. Americans have long known the adorable and helpful R2-D2 and the terrible possibilities of Skynet and its army of Terminators. Throughout, we have seen machines as valuable allies and horrifying enemies. Today, Americans cling to their mobile phones with the same affection that Luke Skywalker felt for the squat R2-D2. Meanwhile, our phones, personal computers, and cars have attained the ability to know and learn everything about us. This volume opens with essays about robots in popular culture, followed by 100 A–Z entries on the most famous AIs in film, comics, and more. Sidebars highlight ancillary points of interest, such as authors, creators, and tropes that illuminate the motives of various robots. The volume closes with a glossary of key terms and a bibliography providing students with resources to continue their study of what robots tell us about ourselves.