The Words of Robotics

Focusing on movement perception and a rhetorical approach, this book argues that our chance to conduct constructive debates about robotics depends primarily on our ability to rethink our own relation to language and representation.

The Words of Robotics addresses how scientific and technological advancements shape the words and expressions that form the basis of humans’ representations and stories. Focusing on how the movements of robots are perceived and described in everyday language, Céline Pieters highlights both the potential and the challenges of the discourses about robotics, through a rhetorical approach. This approach allows one to go beyond the reductionisms of either overstating the abilities and power of robots or reducing the discourse to a specialized, mere technical language.