Sophia Robot

Post Human Being

Thomas Riccio

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English

Routledge
14 June 2024

Performance art; Media studies; Anthropology; Robotics; Artificial intelligence

Series: Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies

This book considers David Hanson’s robots as a performative expression of our cultural moment, serving as a paradigm for the evolution of humanoid social robots.

Mechanical beings have occupied the human imagination since antiquity. Now, they inhabit the pop-cultural imagination, embodying the apotheosis of humanity’s technological aspirations and dread. Sophia, Hanson’s most advanced robot, anticipates the future as she articulates the mythic pattern, narrative, anxieties, and hopes as old as humanity. Gendered as an attractive female with a face inspired by Queen Nefertiti and Audrey Hepburn, Sophia is a cipher, avatar, and turning point that brings humanity and technology a step closer to the emergence of a post-human species. The author is a transdisciplinary artist/scholar/educator working internationally in experimental performance, indigenous performance (ritual, shamanism), and social robotics. Hanson’s robots and Sophia are examined as performance media and events, as characters evolving as post-human narratives of technological beings. The emergent, complex, and collaborative relationships social robots have with technology, AI, performance, anthropology, mythology, psychology, sociology, popular culture, social media, politics, and economics are considered.

By: Thomas Riccio
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781032453729
ISBN 10: 1032453729
Series: Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies
Pages: 370
Publication Date: 14 June 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Acknowledgements PART I: Back Story 1 Introductions and Contexts 2 David Hanson 3 Precursors PART II: Sophia 4 Sophia 5 Adaptation and Acceptance 6 Operations 7 The Writing Team 8 Elements 9 Source Codes 10 Coda Bibliography Index

Thomas Riccio, a performance creator, writer, and director, is a Visual and Performing Arts professor at the University of Texas at Dallas.