On the Sociality of Social Robots A Sociology-of-Knowledge Perspective

Abstract

Within the broad field of robotics, designers are working on the development of “social” robots. Of interest in the context of artificial companionship is the type of bond between human beings and robotic artefacts that is not merely situation-specific but rather cross-situational and that robotics researchers (and not only they) like to term a “social relationship”. After reflecting on the potential attractiveness of robot companions based on Luckmann’s “universal projection”, and discussing sociology-of-technology approaches to this subject of research, two sociology-of-knowledge concepts – objectivation and institutionalization – will be introduced, with the help of which the sociality of these technical artefacts can be located.