Abstract
AbstractThis essay examines the debate over the status of sociable robots and relational artifacts through the prism of our relationship to television. In their work on human-technology relations, Cynthia Breazeal and Sherry Turkle have staked out starkly different assessments. Breazeal’s work on sociable robots suggests that these technological artifacts will be human helpmates and sociable companions. Sherry Turkle argues that such relational artifacts seduce us into simulated relationships with technological others that largely serve to exploit our emotional vulnerabilities and undermine authentic human relationships. Drawing on an analysis of the television as our first relational artifact and on the AMC television show Humans, this essay argues that in order to intervene in this debate we need a multimediated theory of technology that situates our technical artifacts in the domestic realm and examines their impact on those populations especially impacted by such technologies, including women, children, and the elderly. It is only then that we will be able to take the full measure of the impact of such sociable technologies on our being human.
Highlights
Consider two possible youthful avatars of a human future spent in the company of sociable robots
Where does this leave us, following our initial contrast between Breazeal’s optimism regarding sociable robots and Turkle’s pessimism regarding relational artifacts? How has this foray through television and Humans helped us navigate the complexities of this debate? It’s clear that we’re witnessing something of a paradigm shift from learning machines and information processors to sociable machines and engaging artifacts
This paradigm shift and the increasing likelihood that our domestic spaces will soon be occupied by sociable robots and relational artifacts poses complex ontological, ethical, and technological questions
Summary
Consider two possible youthful avatars of a human future spent in the company of sociable robots. Sophie longs for the perfection and emotional stability of synthetic life forms while Sam learns to be imperfect, inefficiently fidgeting and picking his nose. Sophie and Sam are child characters in the AMC drama Humans Together they represent the challenges of thinking through what it means to be human in the context of sociable robots and relational artifacts, a context in which the boundary between human and machine has become increasingly permeable and potentially fraught. Weiss on what happens when we introduce sociable robots into the domestic sphere, the sphere of the family where children are raised and nurtured and where they learn to be human It focuses on the domestic life of the Hawkins family and the consequences that result from Joe’s decision to purchase a synth and bring it into his family home.
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