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An Intimate Relation: Human Beings with Humanoids

An Intimate Relation: Human Beings with Humanoids

Elisabeth Damour
Copyright: © 2011 |Pages: 11
ISBN13: 9781616927974|ISBN10: 1616927976|EISBN13: 9781616927998
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61692-797-4.ch009
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MLA

Damour, Elisabeth. "An Intimate Relation: Human Beings with Humanoids." Kansei Engineering and Soft Computing: Theory and Practice, edited by Ying Dai, et al., IGI Global, 2011, pp. 169-179. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61692-797-4.ch009

APA

Damour, E. (2011). An Intimate Relation: Human Beings with Humanoids. In Y. Dai, B. Chakraborty, & M. Shi (Eds.), Kansei Engineering and Soft Computing: Theory and Practice (pp. 169-179). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61692-797-4.ch009

Chicago

Damour, Elisabeth. "An Intimate Relation: Human Beings with Humanoids." In Kansei Engineering and Soft Computing: Theory and Practice, edited by Ying Dai, Basabi Chakraborty, and Minghui Shi, 169-179. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2011. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61692-797-4.ch009

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Abstract

From the reading of numerous press releases, one may deduce that Japan is a country more and more dedicated to a ‘robot world’. Previously, robots were hidden in plants confined within difficult or dangerous tasks: nowadays robots make themselves visible: humanoids and androids offer home services for elderly. Such a situation is questioning the nature of relationships between human beings and humanoids and highlights how we can understand the human’s position and identity. In becoming part of a family, we could presume that robots should be considered in the position of a child with his or her parent establishing an amazing couple. We will refer to the works of a renowned psychoanalyst Donald Woods Winnicott to understand the way a child may receive the best conditions to become a mature and independent adult. A child when becoming an adolescent is at risk to show possible antisocial behaviours, as symptoms of delinquency. Human beings would certainly prefer the option of an absolute dependence from their robot-child, keeping it waiting in a sort of perpetual adolescence. In that way, human beings would feel more secure not to be challenged in their unshared human hood. Conversely, humans challenging machines and imagining cyber-bodies are to be found in performances and sports events. Researchers consider that robots would emancipate and create a life of their own. Doing so, they seem to offer new opportunities for developing human creativity, eluding the inexpressible threat: shall humanoids overtake human beings in their capacity to run a creative life?

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