Welcome to the InfoSci Platform
Reference Hub1
Mechanology, Mindstorms, and the Genesis of Robots

Mechanology, Mindstorms, and the Genesis of Robots

Chris Chesher
Copyright: © 2018 |Pages: 18
ISBN13: 9781522529736|ISBN10: 152252973X|EISBN13: 9781522529743
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-2973-6.ch005
Cite Chapter Cite Chapter

MLA

Chesher, Chris. "Mechanology, Mindstorms, and the Genesis of Robots." Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots in Contemporary Culture and Society, edited by Steven John Thompson, IGI Global, 2018, pp. 120-137. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-2973-6.ch005

APA

Chesher, C. (2018). Mechanology, Mindstorms, and the Genesis of Robots. In S. Thompson (Ed.), Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots in Contemporary Culture and Society (pp. 120-137). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-2973-6.ch005

Chicago

Chesher, Chris. "Mechanology, Mindstorms, and the Genesis of Robots." In Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots in Contemporary Culture and Society, edited by Steven John Thompson, 120-137. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2018. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-2973-6.ch005

Export Reference

Mendeley
Favorite

Abstract

This chapter examines the emergence of educational robotics, drawing on the philosophy of technology of Gilbert Simondon. In the 1950s, Simondon argued that the dominant understandings of technology are personified in the popular imaginings of the robot. These attitudes are polarised between simple instrumentalism, and dystopian anxiety about technology overcoming humankind. To improve the conceptualisation of technics he took an approach called mechanology, developing a suite of concepts that grasped technology in new ways: technological genesis; the margin of indetermination; lineages of abstract and concrete technologies; and the associated milieu. These concepts are useful in understanding the tradition of educational robotics starting in the 1970s, with Seymour Papert's ‘turtle' robot serving as a resource for learning mathematics. Since the 1980s, LEGO's Mindstorms kits have introduced learners and consumers to robotics concepts. Since the 1990s, theorists of embodied cognition in the 2000s have made use of Mindstorms to draw attention to the limits of symbolic intelligence.

Request Access

You do not own this content. Please login to recommend this title to your institution's librarian or purchase it from the IGI Global bookstore.