Skip to main content

Not in the Image of Humans: Robots as Humans’ Other in Contemporary Science Fiction Film, Literature and Art

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Transhumanism Handbook

Abstract

This article explores how human-posthuman intimate relationships are thematized in both robotics and in science fiction film, literature and robotic art. While many engineers and computer scientists are working hard, albeit in an altogether affirmative way, toward the technological development of anthropomorphic robots, i.e., robots in the image of humans and with qualities which match the human self, aesthetic representations of intimacy between man and machine, as primarily presented in science fiction film, literature and art, give us a more nuanced picture of the robot as humans’ other. This article seeks to analyze the way works of science fiction contextualize technology within a socio-cultural sphere we recognize as similar to our own but do not necessarily depict the artificial other as manlike but as a character in its own right.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Halberstam, J. & I. Livingston: Posthuman Bodies. Indiana UP, Indiana (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Hollinger, V.: ‘Something like a Fiction’: Speculative Intersections of Sexuality and Technology. In: Person, W. et.al. (eds.): Queer Universes: Sexualities in Science Fiction. Liverpool UP, Liverpool, pp. 140–160 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Levy, D.: Love and Sex with Robots. The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships. Duckworth, London (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Kleeman, J.: The race to build the world’s first sex robot. In: The Guardian. (2017) Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/27/race-to-build-world-first-sex-robot

    Google Scholar 

  5. Kant, I.: Lectures on Ethics. Cambridge UP, Cambridge (1997).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  6. Richardson, K.: The asymmetrical ‘relationship’: parallels between prostitution and the development of sex robots. In: ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society 45(3), 290–293 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Devlin, K.: In defence of sex machines: why trying to ban sex robots is wrong. In: The conversation, 17 September 2015. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/in-defence-of-sex-machines-why-trying-to-ban-sex-robots-is-wrong-47641

    Google Scholar 

  8. Spinoza, B.: Ethics, A Spinoza Reader: The Ethics and Other Works. Princeton UP, Princeton (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Grosz, E.: Space, Time and Perversion: Essays on the Politics of Body. Routledge, London (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Braidotti, R.: Metamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming. Polity Press, Cambridge (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Braidotti, R.: Editor’s Note. In: Journal of Posthuman Studies. Philosophy. Technology. Media 1(1), 1–8 (2017).

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  12. Deleuze, G., Guattari, F.: A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia 2, Athlone, London (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  13. MacCormack, P.: Posthuman Ethics. Embodiment and Cultural Theory. Routledge, London (2016).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  14. Coeckelbergh, M: Robot rights? Towards a social-relational justification of moral consideration. In: Ethics and Information Technology 12: 209–221, (2010). DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-010-9235-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Badmington, N.: Alien Chic: Posthumanism and the Other Within. Routledge, London (2004).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  16. Ferrando, F.: Of Posthuman Born: Gender, Utopia and the Posthuman in Films and TV. In: Hauskeller, M., Carbonell, C., Philbeck, Th.: The Palgrave Handbook of Posthumanism in Film and Television. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke (2015), pp. 269–278.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  17. Garland, A.: Ex Machina. UK/US. (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Brooker, C.: Be Right Back. UK (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Lundström, L: Real Humans. S (2012-2014)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Coeckelbergh, M., Alterity ex Machina. The Encounter with Technology as an Epistemological-Ethical Drama. In: Gunkel, D., Marcondes F. & Mersch, D. (eds.), The Changing Face of Alterity. Communication, Technology, and Other Subjects, Rowman & Littlefield International, London, 181–196 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Ghazi, S.: Sången ur det kinesiska rummet. Norstedts, Stockholm (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Mori, M.: The uncanny valley. In: IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, 19(2), (1970/2012), pp. 98–100. doi:https://doi.org/10.1109/MRA.2012.2192811

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Jochum, E., Goldberg, K.: Cultivating the Uncanny: The Telegarden and Other Oddities. In: Herath, D., Kroos, C., Stelarc (eds.): Robots and Art. Exploring an Unlikely Symbiosis. Springer, Singapore (2016).

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  24. Winterson, J.: The Stone Gods. Penguin, London (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Braidotti, R.: The Posthuman. Polity Press, Cambridge (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Demers, L.-P.: The Blind Robot. (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Demers, L.-P.: Machine Performers: Agents in a Multiple Ontological State. Dissertation, University of Plymouth. (2014) http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.829.7112&rep=rep1&type=pdf

    Google Scholar 

  28. Sjef: The Blind Robot. 28.5.2014 https://sjef.nu/the-blind-robot/

    Google Scholar 

  29. Knoll, M.: The Blind Robot at the Lab. 28.10.2013 https://www.aec.at/aeblog/en/2013/10/28/the-blind-robot-bei-the-lab/

    Google Scholar 

  30. Wolfson, J.: Female Figure. (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Bakshi, R.: Cool World. US. (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Feldhaus, T: Jordan Wolfson’s Robot: In the Moment of Terror https://www.spikeartmagazine.com/en/articles/jordan-wolfsons-robot-moment-terror

  33. Owsianik, J.: State of Sex Robots: These are the Companies Developing Robotic Lovers. September 1, 2017 https://futureofsex.net/robots/state-sex-robots-companies-developing-robotic-lovers/

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sophie Wennerscheid .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Wennerscheid, S. (2019). Not in the Image of Humans: Robots as Humans’ Other in Contemporary Science Fiction Film, Literature and Art. In: Lee, N. (eds) The Transhumanism Handbook. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16920-6_37

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16920-6_37

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16919-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16920-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics