The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet (review)

Abstract

The governing premise of this selection of essays is that Web-based interactive technology raises important issues within the field of telepistemology, the study of knowledge acquired at a distance. The interactive structure of the World Wide Web allows widespread access to remote agency through robotic devices (called telerobots) controlled via the Internet. At http://telegarden.aec.at, for example, Internet users can direct a robot to plant and water seeds in a garden located in Austria. However, the distributed nature of the Internet that ensures communicative reliability also allows it to bypass all centralized editorial or vetting authorities. Since it is no great technological challenge to create a "live" site with prerecorded images (and many such sites have been revealed as forgeries), the potential for deception is particularly high. What if the telegarden is a fake? [End Page 618]