Science Fiction: Charismatic Robots

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Traces the long history of robots and robotics in science fiction. Beginning with the coining of the term robot (which means slave) in Karel Kapek's Russian play R.U.R., we examine how robotics coincides with a variety of social issues concerning labor, gender, race, and otherness. We consider what makes robots charismatic (or not), and why might it be that stories about robots offer such rich meditations on ethical and existential questions? In what ways do robot stories coincide with care for the environment, and ethical action? Surveying a variety of works by writers including Ted Chiang, Stanislaw Lem, Isaac Asimov, Christopher Rowe, Marge Piercy, Becky Chambers, and Alice Sheldon.