Robots étrangement humains
An anthropoligical perspective on the growing role played by robots and the relationships we have with them.
Author(s): coordinated by Denis Vidal and Emmanuel Grimaud
Publisher: Gradhiva, n° 15/2012, Musée du Quai Branly
Date of publication: 2012
Manageris opinion
The intervention of increasingly sophisticated robots in our professional, private or even intimate lives is the subject of many research projects. Many are conducted by experts in robotics. Anthropologists are also addressing the challenges linked to the development of “intelligent machines” and to the conditions for their acceptance. By considering how individuals take ownership, but also divert the functions of the objects available to them, they demonstrate the complexity of the relations between humans and robots. This issue of Gradhiva, an anthropology and art history journal, presents some of their research. In particular, it includes the article “The Uncanny Valley” by Masahiro Mori. He was the first to show that robots, when taking a human shape, were better accepted by humans… up to a certain point, beyond which their anthropomorphism was putting us ill at ease. The other articles complete this thinking about the conditions for bonding in robotics. In particular, they describe our tendency to attribute human intentions and feelings to the objects of our daily life.
Another viewpoint on technology, particularly relevant to optimize the design of machines and interfaces with which we will be increasingly led to cooperate.
