In Search of a Narrative for Human–Robot Relationships

Abstract

Fictional robots in literature and film have shaped our cultural image of robots. This paper studies what these images can contribute to our relationship with the real robots that are now entering our everyday lives. A review of science fiction literature and films comes to the conclusion that the predominant theme of the fictional robots – mostly androids and replicants – has been human identity, not robotics itself. Non-humanoid “just-robots” are presented as unproblematic sidekicks. It is argued that this focus has as consequence a tendency toward humanizing even non-humanoid robots in their presentation to the public. This tendency leads to a) breakdowns where technology contradicts the humanoid narrative, and b) a lack of productive narratives about emerging, more complex human-robot relationships.

Keywords:

• human-robot interaction, media studies, robot fiction, robot culture

Acknowledgement

Research leading to this paper was funded by the Austrian Science Fund under grant no. P 27530.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 As a reminder: the Dartmouth Conference where the name “Artificial Intelligence” was coined, took place in 1956.

2 A film version of The Caves of Steel is in production at the time of this writing (source: www.imdb.com)