Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this intriguing book prior to its publication. I was immediately intrigued by the book’s title since I not only love robots, but also wonder about how much of our individuality and humanity we’ve given over to technology for the sake of convenience or ease. It’s an important question that we sometimes forget to ask, and Herold does a laudable job exploring the nuances and complexities of how we invite and accept technology in our lives. Building off of the work of researchers like Sherry Turkle, who examine how technology affects our social lives, relationships, and interactions with others, Herold works to expand Turkle’s focus beyond interpersonal connections and relationships and consider other aspects of technology and robots. Her book is comprehensive and explores various ways we have developed and incorporated robots in our lives—including for relationships and loneliness, potential child rearing and companionship, as well as in warfare. Within each of these sections, Herold explores the history and recent developments of these technologies as well as exploring the benefits and potential drawbacks and issues with robots in these fields. Many readers may have already formed opinions, and Herold doesn’t do much arguing for either side, but presents the facts and considerations in a more or less balanced manner. If anything, I think that this is one of the drawbacks of an otherwise strong book about technology. Her presentation of both sides kind of limits any potential dangers or drawbacks to consider. Nevertheless, I think that her book explores an important topic and asks some really intriguing questions, ultimately leaving it up to the reader to form their own opinions about the issues related to technology in our lives. This is a really important and worthwhile read that goes beyond the work of other researchers and does so with an interesting historical context that examines past attempts to incorporate robots in our lives while also examining the current state of technology and considering the future implications of robotics in our lives.

ROBOTS AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM by Eve Herold is a new non-fiction text about "Holding on to Our Humanity in an Age of Social Robots." Herold, an award-winning science writer and consultant, explores questions like "Could robots make us more emotionally intelligent?" and "Will robots be smarter than humans?" She includes numerous examples, particularly from Japan. In addition, Herold raises concerns about using robots as nannies or warriors, and she asks about possible impacts on human culture, commenting that "it doesn't take a particularly able robot to elicit projection or to bring out the very best and the worst in humanity." Another informative quote: "The facial expressions showing six basic emotions -- anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise -- are understood more or less universally without a language translator ... and roboticists are programming these expressions into social robots." Overall, the text seems to consist of many anecdotes and factoids strung together which is fine since concrete examples may effectively spark reflection and discussion, but ROBOTS AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM is less action oriented than expected. Chapter summaries could help provide a better overview of the argument Herold may be making. Also, while roughly twenty percent of the text is devoted to notes, the text could benefit from adding a list of relevant resources -- companies in this field, researchers in this field, and organizations that deal with each of the areas (e.g., childcare, military) concerned. This is an important topic which merits informed discussion and thoughtful regulation; as Herold references a study that "highlights what psychologists already recognize: interactive robots are not really about robots -- they're mostly about us and the complicated emotions we bring to the human-robot interaction." 3.5 stars

ROBOTS AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM explores the many ways robots have become a part of modern life from social robots to robots used by the military.

Topics include the design of robots to avoid slipping into the uncanny valley where their appearance is unsettlingly human, how their inputs can have far reaching effects such as when ChatGPT accesses the dark web, their capabilities and drawbacks in caring for children and the elderly, the problematic nature of robots created for intimate relationships, and the potential legal issues associated with robots.

With the pro and cons of various robotic technology, the book made for a thought provoking read. I liked how examples of actual robots were given for each of the sections such as Sophia, a social robot that was granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia, the Roxxxy love doll, and the iPal child-friendly social robot that comes equipped with an “emotion management system.”

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group, for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley.

Robots and the People Who Love Them, by Eve Herold, is a solid look at the potential impact of social robots on our lives, though more timely research and a more focused structure would have have improved the book.

Herold’s focus here is not on “robots”, but on social robots, those that we will interact with regularly and often closely. Think robots in the fields of elder care, education, child care, and companion robots (both the platonic sort and the sexbot sort). Herold does occasionally discuss robots more generally and evokes a whole chapter to military robots, but mostly the focus remains pretty tight. Beyond chapters focused on the above noted fields, other sections include but are not limited to explorations of the uncanny valley, our seemingly universal and inevitable desire to anthropomorphize non-humans, the development of AI and its nuances, the fear of robots/AI turning on humanity, whether robots/AI might become sentient, and the legal and ethics, questions that might arise in terms of bestowing “personhood” rights to robots.

The reader is treated to a number of intriguing bits of information, such as the large number of Roomba owners who name and genderize their cleaning robot, the quite depressing statistics on loneliness and its effects, the roots of the uncanny valley effect and where the line gets drawn between appealing, tolerable, and creepy, the high percentage of children who ascribe emotions to even non-humanoid robots, and the way even adults will tend to defer to a robot’s judgement. Some of the most fascinating stories center around companion robots, ranging from the story of how an early 20th Century artist obsessed with Alma Mahler (yes, that Mahler’s widow) contracted for an exact replica of her that he took to the opera and cafes to the number of Japanese men who have “married” holographic female characters.

Throughout all of this, Herold keeps attuned to how these developments might affect, for good or ill, our own individual self-development and the development of human society as a whole. For instance, Herold points out the clear benefits of elder care robots that help the elderly age in place for longer and ameliorate the loneliness that often comes with old age, but also worries that family members might “off-shore” care to robots, cutting down their own interactions with their older relatives and thus increasing their alienation. Similarly, the book acknowledges that sex/companion bots might relieve loneliness on a short-term or surface level, but argues they are also likely to stunt emotional growth, prevent attempts to engage with real people, and possible allow for the transfer of undesirable or even dangerous behavior (cruelty, violence) from the robot companion to actual humans. Herold also points out the hugely asymmetrical gender impact of such robots, noting women are both far less likely to show interest in such robots and also far more likely to suffer the negative consequences of them. Herold’s discussion of all these matters is often thoughtful and thought-provoking, though at times I wished for a more critical eye regarding some of the studies or arguments, as when for instance they cite Freudian analysis or Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory, which has seen a lot of criticism since its inception.

Two more pernicious issues are structure and timeliness. The book can get repetitive at times, and after a while it felt like we kept circling back to the same underlying discussions with regard to impact, such as the idea that self-development might be stunted by our interactions with robots. The other issue, snd one I found particularly disappointing, was how much of the cited research was at least five years old, with a number of studies and citations falling between 2012 and 2015. Five years is a lifetime in technology and ten years an eon, and I would have liked to have seen more studies from 2020 and later. The only chapter that had that level of timeliness consistently was the one on the military use of robots. The age of citations became so noticeable to me I actually stopped reading to doublecheck the publication date, thinking what I’d thought was a 2024 release was actually a 2020 or 2021 publication. I have no idea if this is the case or not, but it felt as if Herold had researched the topic pre-Covid, got delayed by the epidemic, and then published afterward without much updating of research save for the military chapter.

In the end, neither problem is a dealbreaker. The book remains an informative and worthy read, though some streamlining would have helped. The bigger issue is it probably won’t be long before a much more timely work on the same topic comes out, making Robots and the People Who Love Them more of a transitional text likely to be soon eclipsed, even if Herold’s general explorations re human behavior/responses are likely to remain true.

I read a lot of resources on AI and the future of our society because of my work as an educator. Few are as good as "Robots and the People Who Love Them". I found this book engaging, accessible, and relatable for folks who may not have an exorbitant interest in AI/Robotics. My favorite part of this book was that it appeared to be written for an audience unfamiliar with the terminology but still interesting enough for those of us who have read more widely on the topic. Eve Herold takes a psychological and sociological approach to navigating our current and future relationships with robots. It's fresh and a bit haunting. Would make a great gift!

This book was mildly engaging, but could have used more attention paid to the organization within the individual chapters - I felt that it skipped around and followed a very circular, nonsensical sort of logic. A lot of the focus was on the psychology and philosophy of how humans and robots interact. Personally I did not feel like I walked away from the book having many of my questions or concerns about robots or AI having been answered or addressed.

Fascinating read on the impact of robots on society. As one reads all the different ways robots are being used, the pros and cons are clearly stated.
#RobotsandthePeopleWhoLoveThem #NetGalley

This is a great look at the relationships between humans and robots. So timely and relevant with the sudden advancements in AI and the surfacing issues about this complex topic.

Many don’t realize how pervasive robots/AI are in our daily lives and that relationship is growing daily and exponentially.

My students and I find the issues, ethics and technology fascinating and this book provides an excellent framework to think about the many aspects of human/robot interactions, from anthropomorphism to the uncanny valley.

The author begins with a nod to the Jetsons, and much like Disney's Tomorrowland, reminds readers that "science writing that attempts to envision often says much more about the time it was written than it says about the future world."

I've been a fan of science fiction for a long time, and I've been known to finish a whole scifi book in one sitting!

But the real world? And the future of science? That's something else entirely.

This book attempts to assist readers like me in examining the science now and looking forward into the science future.

The author's conversational and readable style make this book easier to follow. While imagining the future can be daunting, this book makes it plausible.

"Something about robots touches the inner child in us. We find them both intimately familiar and unfathomably strange."

The author asks this question: "[If] loneliness can kill you, could a robot save your life?"

And ultimately, this offers some good advice for humans in the future (which, let's be honest, is humans right now):

"The issues surrounding social robots aren't really about robots. They're about us."

Obviously. The author reasons, "The deciding factor in every context is how well we keep the relationship in perspective."

Let's do that.