Making life: a brief history of human-robot interaction

ABSTRACT

This article is based on a talk for the Third Annual Eugene H. Fram Chair in Applied Critical Thinking lecture at Rochester Institute of Technology, which took place on 23 September 2014. The talk weaved together a brief history of robots, feral data, the internet of things, and consumer materiality to illuminate how life infuses our imagination of technology. This article illuminates the intersection of culture and technology and provides a lively history of the interactions between humans and robots.

KEYWORDS:

• Corporate anthropology
• cultural production
• cyborgs
• history of technology
• imagination
• internet of things
• robots
• technology

Acknowledgements

Genevieve Bell, Ph.D., commonly referred to as “Intel's Secret Weapon,” is well known for being the only female Intel Senior Fellow and the only Intel Senior Fellow who is an anthropologist. Bell joined Intel in 1998 after having taught at Stanford. She was named an Intel Fellow in 2008 and holds a number of patents for consumer electronics innovations. She is currently the Director of the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance (3A) Institute, Florence Violet McKenzie Chair, and a Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University. Thanks to Clarence B. Sheffield, Jr. at Rochester Institute of Technology for organizing her Eugene Fram Chair in Applied Critical Thinking lecture, and for graciously allowing Consumption Markets & Culture to publish this article. Also, thanks to Scott Schaut, Curator, Mansfield Memorial Museum, the Mary Evans Picture Library, filmmaker Bill Moldt, and Sarah Davis for picture research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.