Nocks, Lisa (Author)
Drew University
Rose, Jonathan E.
Edition Details: Advisor: Rose, Jonathan E.
Physical Details: 270 pp.
Language: English
In To Serve and Obey: A History of the Android 1850-Present , I follow the development of the humanoid robot or android from its venerable place in science fiction to its emergence as a serious engineering objective at the end of the twentieth century. Contrary to those who read stories about humanoid robots as allegorical figures, I argue that the idea of creating artificial people metamorphosed form archaic myth into a serious initiative during the industrial and digital revolutions. I focus this alternative reading on stories about androids mass produced to fill social and economic niches. I argue that it is faulty reasoning to assume, as science fiction critics Robert E. Scholes and Eric S. Rabkin did in the 1970's, that the stories must necessarily be allegories since no one had yet produced an android; and that the necessary time and expense precluded the possibility that they would ever be built. Furthermore, I dispute the idea that early science fiction should be understood merely as historical curiosity. No matter when these stories were written; no matter how well written, or how primitive, they all represent an ongoing interest in the production of humanoid robots, and its potential impact on the human population. What emerges from this research is evidence that technology and literature have relied on each other for inspiration and together have promoted and advanced what I call here the "android initiative." The proof, I argue, is in the dozens of humanoid projects now in development, as well as in the willingness of both science fiction writers and robotics engineers to credit each other with inspiration. While this material is generally organized chronologically, I do not classify storylines according to those categories established by science fiction studies, for instance, "New Wave" or "Golden Age." Rather, I see similar themes extant throughout the history of the genre; and simply articulated differently depending on contemporary developments in science, computing and engineering, and current events.
...MoreDescription Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 66/12 (2006): 4509. UMI pub. no. 3199673.
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