Reflecting on the Presence of Science Fiction Robots in Computing Literature

Abstract

Depictions of robots and AIs in popular science fiction movies and shows have the potential to showcase visions of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) to the general public and computer science researchers alike. In contrast, studies on the referral, usage, and appropriation of these portrayals by computer scientists in their research publications is an academic void at present. However, such investigations are critical to better understand the potential utility and latent shortcomings of science fiction robots for future HRI research, innovation, and education. To address this research gap, this study investigates the overall presence, nature, and frequency of referrals of 18 popular science fiction robots in the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library. These robots were either portrayed in various movies and subsequently inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame, created by Carnegie Mellon University in 2003, or were top-ranked in a user-curated Internet Movie Database (IMDB) list. To do so, we performed full-text search and retrieval queries of all 18 robots in the ACM Digital Library. In total, we identified 121 relevant mentions, across 102 individual publications, in a time span from 1973 to 2017. These 121 mentions were then qualitatively analysed to determine the nature of the robot mentions. Our results indicate that the robot attributes of voice or dialogue were emerging as a popularly mentioned element. In addition, we find that research papers of philosophical nature mention sci-fi robots more frequently than papers of technical or theoretical nature. We also observe that the dystopian element of science fiction is under-utilised, with the majority of robot mentions exhibiting neutral or utopian characteristics. In conclusion, we speculate on our results and present possible avenues of future HRI research on the topic.