Week 9

1. Week 9 Robot Culture

2. Robots in Everyday Life • Use of robots as human resource • Robots & people living together • Child care • Cleaning • Security • Partner robots = humanoid

3. Robots as Relational Artifacts • Japan's evolving imaginary of a “robot culture” emphasizes technologies that are no longer just meant to do things for humans, but to also do things to and with humans • Robots as social entities are expected to fulfill new roles as companions, caretakers, “natural” interaction partners, and mediators between humans and the increasingly complex socio-technical environments we live in. • These “relational” artifacts enable people to project and reflect on their ideas of self and to interact with technology in qualitatively different ways

4. Robot Kingdom • Japan became known as the “robot kingdom” first through its domination of the industrial robot market • Now recognized for a consumer culture that is singularly adaptable and accepting of robots and other high tech consumer products. • A conceptual differentiation between Japanese spirit (wakon) and the borrowed Western technology has allowed for the introduction of material aspects of Western culture into the Japanese market, while distancing the realms of spirituality, morality and culture from foreign influence

5. Machine Loving Culture • The special affinity of the Japanese towards robotic technologies is related to a history of traditional crafts such as karakuriningyo(automata), animistic Shinto beliefs and Buddhist teachings concerning the interconnectedness of all animate and inanimate beings • Robots are not only designed for utilitarian purposes, but to function “the same as flowers—something that speaks directly to the soul”

6. Rise of Robots • Due to the scarcity of its natural resources, technology was the only way Japan could add value to its manufactured products • Turning imported raw materials into high-tech manufactured goods for export became the widely accepted recipe for economic success after WWII • In the 1980s, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) subscribed to a policy of gijutsurikkoku, or “technological nation-building” which focused the growth of the nation on the research and development of original technologies that would be necessary for an “advanced information society.”  • In a context of falling birthrates, a rapidly aging population, and environmental and energy problems, robots are seen as a way to create an affluent society with high quality of life

7. Astro Boy • Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム ,TetsuwanAtomu?, lit. "Mighty Atom") is a Japanese manga series and television program first broadcast in Japan from 1963 to 1966. • The story follows the adventures of a fictional robot named Astro Boy • Astro Boy is the first Japanese television series that embodied the aesthetic that later became familiarized as anime.[2] • It originated as a manga in 1952 by Osamu Tezuka, who is often reputed as the "god of manga".[3]

8. Astro Boy • Astro Boy is a science fiction series set in a futuristic world wherein androids co-exist with humans. Its focus is on the adventures of the titular "Astro Boy" (sometimes called simply "Astro"), a powerful robot created by the head of the Ministry of Science, Doctor Tenma, to replace his son Tobio, who died in a car accident. • Astro then is shown fighting crime, evil, and injustice. Most of his enemies were robot-hating humans, robots gone berserk, or alien invaders. • Almost every story included a battle involving Astro and other robots.

9. Doraemon • Most famous manga character in all of Japan is Doraemon - equivalent of Mickey Mouse in the U.S. • Doraemon and his namesake series symbolize to many the foibles and adventures of childhood.

10. Doraemon • Children's manga (later a TV-series) about a boy named NobiNobita who is so unlucky, weak and lazy that his descendants had to send the family robot back in time to help him out. • That robot is Doraemon (where the "Dora" is presumably based on the word "dora-neko," or stray cat), and his four-dimensional pocket produces any number of futuristic gadgets and devices meant to help Nobita become something other than a complete failure in adulthood. • Though smart and caring, Doraemon has his own foibles, and his partnership with Nobita produces both triumphs and disasters

11. Industrial Robots • Japan's political and economic emphasis on advanced technologies also depended on the societal structure to support such developments. • The Japanese blue-collar working class has always been small, never constituting more than a third of the work-force, so a working-class identity like that in the West did not develop • Japanese industrial paternalism and lifetime employment policies assured that workers would not lose their jobs as a result of workplace automation, but would be given work elsewhere in the firm. • While protecting the male worker, the social structure of Japan supported the techno-nationalist dream at the expense of certain parts of the population, particularly women and the illegal foreign workforce, which could be hired and fired at will and bore the brunt of economic fluctuations

12. Industrial Robots • Contrary to the US, the introduction of robots into the industrial workplace did not destabilize the workforce because robots were proposed as an alternative to immigrant workers, who were seen as a threat to Japanese society and “the most discussed social problem in the late 1980s and 1990s” • Japanese women, on the other hand, were reconstituted as conspicuous consumers, the linchpin of the national economy and prosperity, in addition to their role as an invisible domestic workforce supporting the sarariman(white-collar worker).

13. Industrial Robot Powerhouse • Japan is already an industrial robot powerhouse. • Over 370,000 robots worked at factories across Japan in 2005, about 40 percent of the global total • There are 32 robots for every 1,000 Japanese manufacturing employees • "The cost of machinery is going down, while labor costs are rising • Projection that robots could even replace low-cost workers at small firms, greatly boosting productivity.

14. Japanese Trade Ministry Projections • 2007 national technology roadmap by the Trade Ministry calls for 1 million industrial robots to be installed throughout the country by 2025. • A single robot can replace about 10 employees, the roadmap assumes — meaning Japan's future million-robot army of workers could take the place of 10 million humans. 15 percent of the current work force. • "Robots are the cornerstone of Japan's international competitiveness," Shunichi Uchiyama, the Trade Ministry's chief of manufacturing industry policy, said at a recent seminar. "We expect robotics technology to enter even more sectors going forward.“

15. Child Robot • Researchers at Osaka University are developing a robot to better understand child development. • The "Child-Robot with Biomimetic Body" is designed to mimic the motions of a toddler. • Responds to sounds, and sensors in its eyes can see and react to people. It wiggles, changes facial expressions, and makes gurgling sounds. • The team leader, Minoru Asada, is working on artificial intelligence software that would allow the child to "learn" as it progresses. • "Right now, it only goes, 'Ah, ah.' But as we develop its learning function, we hope it can start saying more complex sentences and moving on its own will

16. Next Generation of Robots • Japanese vision: next-generation robots need to be able to learn and develop themselves • For Hiroshi Ishiguro, also at Osaka University, the key is to make robots that look like human beings. His Geminoid robot looks uncannily like himself — down to the black, wiry hair and slight tan. • "In the end, we don't want to interact with machines or computers. We want to interact with technology in a human way so it's natural and valid to try to make robots look like us," he said. • "One day, they will live among us," Ishiguro said. "Then you'd have to ask me: 'Are you human? Or a robot?'"