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Minimizing the Human? Functional Reductions of Complexity in Social Robotics and Their Cybernetic Heritage

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Social Robots from a Human Perspective

Abstract

Recently designers at the Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratory (ATR, Kyoto) decided to shift their focus away from highly-lifelike androids to very minimalistic appearances like that of the Telenoid, Elfoid and Hugvie models. Instead of trying to simulate the appearance and behavior of actual human beings, the decision was to sidestep the Uncanny Valley problem by restricting the robots to a functional minimum in human likeness. This chapter investigates different approaches to complexity reduction in social robotics, among them experiments that compared human mime artists (theatrical robots) with actual robots in the interaction with autistic children and the implementation of cartoon techniques to model emotions in the generation of projected facial expressions. The notion of complexity reduction is discussed with respect to its merits (especially from a systems theoretical framework) and to its drawbacks. Beyond ethical considerations, the chapter argues that the research on social robotics is linked with the cybernetic hypothesis (as formulated by Tiqqun), a contemporary mode of governance and regulation that privileges certain kinds of subjectification via communication and discourages others.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Bartneck et al. 2009 have argued that the Uncanny Valley hypothesis is not empirically valid. However, their own study is methodologically questionable and not statistically firm because it is centered on a single robot model, Geminoid HI-1. The subsequent design changes at HIL indicate that the Uncanny Valley hypothesis remains to be an important criterion for the developers.

  2. 2.

    The results of the study influenced the design of the KASPAR robot developed at University of Hertfordshire.

  3. 3.

    Gillespie (2014) has made a similar argument referring to the process of algorithmic profiling, e.g. in content recommendation services and online shopping.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Media Studies, University of Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany

    Timo Kaerlein

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  1. Timo Kaerlein
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Correspondence to Timo Kaerlein .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Arts, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom

    Jane Vincent

  2. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Sakari Taipale

  3. Viale del Policlinico 147, Fondazione Ugo Bordoni, Roma, Italy

    Bartolomeo Sapio

  4. COST, Brussels, Belgium

    Giuseppe Lugano

  5. University of Udine, Udine, Italy

    Leopoldina Fortunati

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Kaerlein, T. (2015). Minimizing the Human? Functional Reductions of Complexity in Social Robotics and Their Cybernetic Heritage. In: Vincent, J., Taipale, S., Sapio, B., Lugano, G., Fortunati, L. (eds) Social Robots from a Human Perspective. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15672-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15672-9_7

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