Robots and the People Who Love them by Herold

ROBOTS AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM by Eve Herold is a new non-fiction text about “Holding on to Our Humanity in an Age of Social Robots.” Herold, an award-winning science writer and consultant, explores questions like “Could robots make us more emotionally intelligent?” and “Will robots be smarter than humans?” She includes numerous examples, particularly from Japan. In addition, Herold raises concerns about using robots as nannies or warriors, and she asks about possible impacts on human culture, commenting that “it doesn't take a particularly able robot to elicit projection or to bring out the very best and the worst in humanity.” Another informative quote: “The facial expressions showing six basic emotions -- anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise -- are understood more or less universally without a language translator ... and roboticists are programming these expressions into social robots.” Overall, the text seems to consist of many anecdotes and factoids strung together which is fine since concrete examples may effectively spark reflection and discussion, but ROBOTS AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM is less action oriented than expected. Chapter summaries could help provide a better overview of the argument Herold may be making. Also, while roughly twenty percent of the text is devoted to notes, the text could benefit from adding a list of relevant resources -- companies in this field, researchers in this field, and organizations that deal with each of the areas (e.g., childcare, military) concerned. This is an important topic which merits informed discussion and thoughtful regulation; as Herold references a study that “highlights what psychologists already recognize: interactive robots are not really about robots -- they're mostly about us and the complicated emotions we bring to the human-robot interaction.”