By Yaqub Chaudhary In mid-January 2020, it was reported that scientists created the first “living robot” which represents a new class of biological artefact in the form of a “programmable organism” according to headlines in the Independent and Wired. Elsewhere, the ability of these new entities to “walk” was highlighted by the Guardian, opening up […]
A Comment on “Living Robots” Read More »
By Karen Asp “Pepper is finally coming to America.” So IEEE Spectrum editor Erico Guizzo wrote in a piece covering SoftBank Mobile Corporation’s announcement on May 19th that its humanoid robot Pepper will be introduced to North American markets later this year (Guizzo 2016). To say “finally” seems something of an overstatement: Japanese telecom Softbank
Learning American Manners: Pepper Robots, My Fair Lady and the Spirit of Capitalism Read More »
By Karen Asp Sony has rendered its robotic pet dog “Aibo” obsolete. As The New York Times documentary “A Robotic Dog’s Mortality” shows, this extinction event has traumatized Aibo owners in Japan who are no longer able to repair or replace their beloved pets. A summary posted with the NYT documentary reveals that Sony had
Companion Species 2.0: Aibo’s Extinction Traumatic Event, Cruel Reality Read More »
By Teresa Heffernan Jibo, a device that is marketed as more than a “thing,” is the latest creation of Cynthia Breazeal, who has taken a leave from MIT to start up a company to sell this “family robot.” In a crowd-sourcing advertisement promoting “his” many roles, Jibo is referred to as an educator, entertainer, helper,
The Rift between Science and Fiction: The Case of the “Family Robot” Read More »
