Studies in American Culture (310-0-20)

Topic

Fear of Robots

Instructors

Nicolette Bruner

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 212: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

Originating in Slavic words for forced labor, the term "robot" evokes for many an image of blocky metallic humanoids beeping their way through a set of tasks. Yet robots also carry the specter of revolt. We tend to fear the automated tools we design to mechanize labor, even as we continue creating more of them. In this class, we will investigate U.S. popular culture's treatment of robots from early cinema's "mechanical men" to the modern controversy over generative AI. Along the way, we will survey U.S. law's responses to the spread of technology, with particular attention to the problems raised by cutting-edge innovations like self-driving cars and AI-generated artwork. We will read fiction by Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, and Naomi Kritzer; analyze films like The Iron Giant and The Stepford Wives; and engage with the work of scholars like Donna Haraway, Dennis Yi Tenen, Scott Selisker, and others. By the end of the course, students will develop a more nuanced understanding of what it means to fear robots and what that fear obscures about them (and us).

Learning Objectives

By the end of this class, students will be able to:
1. Describe historical trends in US popular culture's depiction of robotic and technological tropes since the 1920's;
2. Analyze film and literary treatments of the robot and robot-human interactions using close reading and other critical techniques;
3. Engage with theoretical debates over the past and future of robotic-human relationships;
4. Place the contemporary anxiety over AI and large language models into a wider historical context.

Class Materials (Required)

Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 1968. Del Ray, 1996.
ISBN: 9780345404473
All other materials will be available on Canvas.