An Anthropology of Robots and AI: Annihilation Anxiety and Machines
Date
2015-02-14
Authors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Routledge
Type
Book
Peer reviewed
Yes
Abstract
This book explores the making of robots in labs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It examines the cultural ideas that go into the making of robots, and the role of fiction in co-constructing the technological practices of the robotic scientists. The book engages with debates in anthropological theorizing regarding the way that robots are reimagined as intelligent, autonomous and social and weaved into lived social realities. Richardson charts the move away from the “worker” robot of the 1920s to the “social” one of the 2000s, as robots are reimagined as companions, friends and therapeutic agents.
Description
Keywords
Robots, Annihilation, Destruction, Fantasy, Attachment Theory, Mechanical Sociality, Gender, Geeks, Nerds, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)
Citation
Richardson, K. (2015) An Anthropology of Robots and AI: Annihilation Anxiety and Machines. Routledge, New York and London.