Robo sapiens japanicus : Robots, Gender, Family, and the Japanese Nation / Jennifer Robertson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Robertson, Jennifer, 1953- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human-robot interaction--Japan.

Human-robot interaction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Japan is arguably the first postindustrial society to embrace the prospect of human-robot coexistence. Over the past decade, Japanese humanoid robots designed for use in homes, hospitals, offices, and schools have become celebrated in mass and social media throughout the world. In Robo sapiens japanicus, Jennifer Robertson casts a critical eye on press releases and public relations videos that misrepresent robots as being as versatile and agile as their science fiction counterparts. An ethnography and sociocultural history of governmental and academic discourse of human-robot relations in Japan, this book explores how actual robots-humanoids, androids, and animaloids-are "imagineered" in ways that reinforce the conventional sex/gender system and political-economic status quo. In addition, Robertson interrogates the notion of human exceptionalism as she considers whether "civil rights" should be granted to robots. Similarly, she juxtaposes how robots and robotic exoskeletons reinforce a conception of the "normal" body with a deconstruction of the much-invoked Theory of the Uncanny Valley.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Author's Notes

1. Robot Visions

2. Innovation as Renovation

3. Families of Future Past

4. Embodiment and Gender

5. Robot Rights vs. Human Rights

6. Cyborg-Ableism beyond the Uncanny (Valley)

7. Robot Reality Check

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 20. Sep 2019)

ISBN:

9780520959064

052095906X

OCLC:

1006879164