De re robotica. O posthumanom folkloru, kućnim ljubimcima-robotima i susretima s radnim robotima
De re robotica. Posthuman Folklore research, Robotic Pets and Meetings with working Robots

Summary/Abstract: The last decades have been marked by the development of technology that has led to an increasing number of robots in the human surroundings (outside environment and inside the body), which brings us closer to the realization of posthumanism and transhumanism. That new circumstances bring humans closer to robots and, consequently, hybrids and cyborgs. Today, robots have become commonplace, with increasing tasks in service industries (e.g., catering or customer satisfaction testing), then as automatic and autonomous devices (e.g., vacuum cleaners or cars) and as substitutes for individual plants and animals (e.g., artificial trees, RoboBee as a substitute for bees, etc.). In this article, we move on to lesser-known robots – robotic pets whose genesis as a kind of avatars and small toys we followed from the mid-1990s when the area of SE Europe was interrupted with children’s Japanese “pet” Tamagotchi. Later, more complex “pets” such as Joy for All, Zoomer Interactive Kittens and Puppies, PARO Robot Seals, and AIBO were developed. Our focus is on robot pets used in retirement homes in some countries and, for example, people with dementia. Such objects have opened several questions, of which we pointed out the following: the definition of being and pet, or home animals or, as some anthropologists point out – companion animals, sociability and attachment, feelings, biological needs, responsibility for behaviour, rights, and obligations as well as violence against hybrids and androids (cf. Thompson 2018).

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