Feeling Machines - by Shawn Bender (Paperback)

About the Book

"In recent years, debates over healthcare have accompanied rapid advances in technology, from the expansion of telehealth services to artificial intelligence driven diagnostics. In this book, Shawn Bender delves into the world of Japanese robots engineered for care. Care robots (kaigo robotto) emerged early in the 21st century, when roboticists began converting assembly line technologies into responsive machines for older adults and people with disabilities. These robots are meant to be felt and programmed to feel. While some greet them with enthusiasm, others fear that they might replace a fundamentally human task. Based on fieldwork in Japan, Denmark, and Germany, Bender traces the emergence of care robots in Japan and examines their impact on therapeutic practice around the world. Social science scholarship on robotics tends to be either speculative--imagining life together with robots--or experimental--observing robot-human interaction in laboratories or through short-term field studies. Instead, Bender follows roboticists developing technologies in Japan, and travels with the robots themselves into everyday sites of care, tracking the integration of robots into institutional care and the connection of care practice to robotics development. By exploring the application of Japanese robotics across the globe, Feeling Machines highlights the entanglements of therapeutic practice and technological innovation in an age of more-than-human care"--

Book Synopsis

In recent years, debates over healthcare have accompanied rapid advances in technology, from the expansion of telehealth services to artificial intelligence driven diagnostics. In this book, Shawn Bender delves into the world of Japanese robots engineered for care. Care robots (kaigo robotto) emerged early in the 21st century, when roboticists began converting assembly line technologies into responsive machines for older adults and people with disabilities. These robots are meant to be felt and programmed to feel. While some greet them with enthusiasm, others fear that they might replace a fundamentally human task. Based on fieldwork in Japan, Denmark, and Germany, Bender traces the emergence of care robots in Japan and examines their impact on therapeutic practice around the world.

Social science scholarship on robotics tends to be either speculative--imagining life together with robots--or experimental--observing robot-human interaction in laboratories or through short-term field studies. Instead, Bender follows roboticists developing technologies in Japan, and travels with the robots themselves into everyday sites of care, tracking the integration of robots into institutional care and the connection of care practice to robotics development. By exploring the application of Japanese robotics across the globe, Feeling Machines highlights the entanglements of therapeutic practice and technological innovation in an age of more-than-human care.

Review Quotes

"Through a decade-long ethnographic fieldwork in Japan (2010-2014, 2017), Denmark, and Germany (2012-2017), Bender presents fascinating and vivid accounts of our 'iterative engagements' with robot technology that were developed and used in care settings." --Naonori Kodate, Pacific Affairs

"Bender moves deftly between smart, comprehensive storytelling, cultural contextualization, and theory while putting forth an argument about the 'entanglements' that robotic technology builds on (and capitalizes from) the iterative feedback from users. Well-written and sharply observed, Feeling Machines captures the reader from beginning to end." --Anne Allison, Duke University

"Japan has been a center for the use of technology in mental health, and particularly in senior care. This pioneering ethnography confronts us with crucial questions about our future: What is it to create robots for caring?" --Sherry Turkle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"This fascinating ethnography takes us on a global tour of the use of care robots, in practice. Bender shows how these robots carry visions of the future, but the great strength of this book is its focus on the present, where he expertly traces the caring relationships and feedback circuits that these robots have already entered into." --Nick Seaver, Tufts University

About the Author

Shawn Bender is Associate Professor of East Asian Studies at Dickinson College.