
Feeling Machines
Japanese Robotics and the Global Entanglements of More-Than-Human Care
- 254 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
In recent years, debates over healthcare have accompanied rapid advances in technology, from the expansion of telehealth services to artificial intelligence driven diagnostics. In this book, Shawn Bender delves into the world of Japanese robots engineered for care. Care robots (kaigo robotto) emerged early in the 21st century, when roboticists began converting assembly line technologies into responsive machines for older adults and people with disabilities. These robots are meant to be felt and programmed to feel. While some greet them with enthusiasm, others fear that they might replace a fundamentally human task. Based on fieldwork in Japan, Denmark, and Germany, Bender traces the emergence of care robots in Japan and examines their impact on therapeutic practice around the world.
Social science scholarship on robotics tends to be either speculativeāimagining life together with robotsāor experimentalāobserving robot-human interaction in laboratories or through short-term field studies. Instead, Bender follows roboticists developing technologies in Japan, and travels with the robots themselves into everyday sites of care, tracking the integration of robots into institutional care and the connection of care practice to robotics development. By exploring the application of Japanese robotics across the globe, Feeling Machines highlights the entanglements of therapeutic practice and technological innovation in an age of more-than-human care.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface: Life in the Loop
- Introduction. Care Robotics 1.0
- One. Robots for the Future
- Two. Feeling Machines in Robot Towns
- Three. Tinkering with Care
- Four. Embracing Paro
- Five. Engaging HAL
- Six. Care Robotics 2.0 Meets Society 5.0
- Epilogue. Addicted to the Future
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- References
- Index