{"product_id":"the-robotic-imaginary-jennifer-rhee-9781517902988","title":"The Robotic Imaginary: The Human and the Price of Dehumanized Labor","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTracing the connections between human-like robots and AI at the site of dehumanization and exploited labor\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The word robot--introduced in Karel Čapek's 1920 play \u003ci\u003eR.U.R.\u003c\/i\u003e--derives from rabota, the Czech word for servitude or forced labor. A century later, the play's dystopian themes of dehumanization and exploited labor are being played out in factories, workplaces, and battlefields. In \u003ci\u003eThe Robotic Imaginary\u003c\/i\u003e, Jennifer Rhee traces the provocative and productive connections of contemporary robots in technology, film, art, and literature. Centered around the twinned processes of anthropomorphization and dehumanization, she analyzes the coevolution of cultural and technological robots and artificial intelligence, arguing that it is through the conceptualization of the human and, more important, the dehumanized that these multiple spheres affect and transform each other.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on the writings of Alan Turing, Sara Ahmed, and Arlie Russell Hochschild; such films and novels as \u003ci\u003eHer\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Stepford Wives\u003c\/i\u003e; technologies like Kismet (the pioneering \"emotional robot\"); and contemporary drone art, this book explores anthropomorphic paradigms in robot design and imagery in ways that often challenge the very grounds on which those paradigms operate in robotics labs and industry. From disembodied, conversational AI and its entanglement with care labor; embodied mobile robots as they intersect with domestic labor; emotional robots impacting affective labor; and armed military drones and artistic responses to drone warfare, \u003ci\u003eThe Robotic Imaginary\u003c\/i\u003e ultimately reveals how the human is made knowable through the design of and discourse on humanoid robots that are, paradoxically, dehumanized. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jennifer Rhee\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1517902983\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781517902988\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Minnesota Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/16\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.75lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.70d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/01\/2019","brand":"Jennifer Rhee","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43940065542399,"sku":"9781517902988","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_d96c1eb0-500f-4e7a-b385-e08c1a554db3.jpg?v=1681445086","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-robotic-imaginary-jennifer-rhee-9781517902988","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}