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The Cyborg, the Surrogate & the Future of Gender in Robotics

kelliott's picture
Submitted by kelliott on Fri, 02/11/2011 - 11:17pm

prezi.com/xx-lw8q8zfys/the-cyborg-the-surrogate-the-future-of-robotics-in-gender/ 

 

I made a Prezi for the assignment. To see the text that is relatively small, scroll your mouse over the right side of the screen and a Zoom option should appear!

Comments

Liz McCormack's picture

surrogates and robots as Harawinian and Clarkian cyborgs

Submitted by Liz McCormack on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 11:50am.

I really enjoyed exploring this interactive presentation.  The photos and clips were an excellent match to the points you made in your text.  I was particularly intrigued by the surrogates and how their existence would enable us to challenge the limitations of location.  With them we could be in two places, multiple places!, at once. 

I also found watching the humanized robot fascinating.  Her eyes, forehead, and mouth could display a remarkable amount of "simulated" empathy. 

The idea that part of humanizing a robot is to ascribe a gender to it was compelling.  It seems this applies to imaginary objects and identities as well, reminding me of the Turkle article we read.  I found the CEO's comment that we do this for amusement and entertainment provocative. Are we compelled in this manner for other reasons as well? 

Finally, the cyborg definitions from Haraway and Clark that you quoted got me thinking of the humanized robots and the surrogate machines as particular types of the social-machine cyborgs they describe--they represent different blends of our minds out into the physical and social worlds beyond our bodies.   Cyborgs are here and more are coming.

kelliott's picture

 I realize the link above

Submitted by kelliott on Sat, 02/12/2011 - 11:52am.

 I realize the link above says "future of robotics in gender" when it's actually this:

 http://prezi.com/xx-lw8q8zfys/the-cyborg-the-surrogate-the-future-of-gender-in-robotics/

Not sure how that happened! Pretty sure they send you to the same place..but this is the actual one

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