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Android, Assembled unpacks the phenomenon of social robots-not as monolithic machines but as sociotechnical assemblages, pieced together from bodily features (like heads and sensors) and the elements we read into them (like gender and authority). Each chapter explores the philosophical, theoretical, empirical, or technical understanding of discrete robot components to offer a deeper look into how those parts contribute to what social robots are and how humans experience them. Part I (Explicit Anatomy) considers the manifest components of robots-those that make up the physical robot and its capabilities: Shapes, heads, faces, eyes, legs, feet, wings, color, clothing, gestures, postures, speech, text, screens, memory, information, sensors, actuators, organic elements, and distributed elements. Part II (Implicit Anatomy) explores the parts of social robots that humans infer or interpret: Image, interactivity, cuteness, gender, power, authority, membership, cognition, decision-making, aliveness, mindedness, obligations, and ultimately the kind of thing a robot is. Along with the state of the art and science, each author gives a provocation to highlight open questions and possible futures.
List of contents
List of Figures - List of Tables - Jaime Banks: Introduction: (Dis)Assembling the Android - Autumn Edwards: Morphology & Ontology: The Convergence of Form and Being - Xiaoyu Jia/Chien-Hsiung Chen: Heads & Faces: An Assemblage of Cues - Chris Chesher: Eyes & Gaze: Exchanging Glances with Robots - Zhenyu Gan: Legs & Feet: Complexities of Limb-Environment Interactions - Mafalda Gamboa: Wings & Propellers: Caring with/for Flying Robots - Natalie Friedman: Color & Clothing: The Social Consequences of Aesthetics - Jason Edward Archer: Tactility & Texture: Embrace at the Interface - Sara Ali: Gesture & Posture: Conveying Simulated Emotional States - Kristine L. Nowak/Antonio Chella: Text & Speech: Robot Communication Design - Katriina Heljakka: Screens & Links: Playful Affordances of Future Friends - Rafael Sousa Silva/Tom Williams: Memory & Information: The Core of Robot Cognition - Uchenna Ogenyi: Sensors & Actuators: Synergies of Perception and Movement - Dayeoun Jang/Stephanie Jordan: Implants & Injections: Long-Lived Integrations with the Organic - Sarah Diefenbach/Daniel Ullrich/Andreas Butz: Aggregation & Distribution: Beyond the Singular Form - Aike C. Horstmann: Images & Frames: Tensions in Representations - Nicholas David Bowman/Elena Yifei Zhao/Yoon Esther Lee: Digitality & Interactivity: Lessons Learned from NPCs - Joel Gn: Cuteness & Repulsiveness: Aesthetics of Machine Bodies - Leopoldina Fortunati: Sex & Gender: A Complicated Relationship - J. Nan Wilkenfeld: Power & Agency: A Dynamic Interplay - Tomasz Grzyb/Dariusz Dolinski: Authority & Status: Mechanisms of Influence - Qingyu Liang: Membership & Roles: Complicating the Notion of "Teaming" with Machines - Roc Myers: Cognition & Context: Closing the Social Gap - Sarah Rajtmajer: Decision & Action: A New Kind of Assemblage - Kevin Koban: Life & Death: Making Sense of Robots' Temporary Presence - Jan-Philipp Stein: Mind & Morality: Seeing the Ghost in the Shell - Nicholas G. Evans: Sword & Shield: Do Robots Have Defensive Obligations? - David J. Gunkel: Persons & Things: Rethinking the Ontology of the Robot - Index of Social Robots - Notes on Contributors - Index.
About the author
Jaime Banks (Ph.D., Colorado State University) is Associate Professor at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University (New York, USA). Her research focuses on the dynamics and effects of human-machine relations, with an emphasis on social robots, artificial intelligence, and videogame avatars.
