Robot Double

Abstract

This chapter discusses Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro's performance experiments with robotic machines (humanoid and android) as a case study for this book's theme, “the techno-self.” Ishiguro's robots are highly sophisticated pieces of engineering intended to replicate human physical movement and appearance. In addition to claims relevant to robot engineering, for Ishiguro, these machines are reflexive tools for investigations into questions of human identity. In Ishiguro's thinking I identify what I call a “reflexive anthropomorphism,” a notion of the self's relation to the other that is tied equally to Buddhism and Japanese mythology. Using concepts from Japanese studies and theatre and performance studies, this chapter examines one culturally specific way of thinking about concepts of the self and identity through Ishiguro's discussion of the human-robot relation.