The New Breed: What Our History with Animals Reveals about Our Future with Robots

by Kate Darling

Overview

For readers of The Second Machine Age or The Soul of an Octopus, a bold, exciting exploration of how building diverse kinds of relationships with robots—inspired by how we interact with animals—could be the key to making our future with robot technology work

There has been a lot of ink devoted to discussions of how robots will replace us and take our jobs. But MIT Media Lab researcher and technology policy expert Kate Darling argues just the opposite, suggesting that treating robots with a bit of humanity, more like the way we treat animals, will actually serve us better. From a social, legal, and ethical perspective, she shows that our current ways of thinking don’t leave room for the robot technology that is soon to become part of our everyday routines. Robots are likely to supplement—rather than replace—our own skills and relationships. So if we consider our history of incorporating animals into our work, transportation, military, and even families, we actually have a solid basis for how to contend with this future.

A deeply original analysis of our technological future and the ethical dilemmas that await us, The New Breed explains how the treatment of machines can reveal a new understanding of our own history, our own systems, and how we relate—not just to nonhumans, but also to one another.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250296108
Publisher:	Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	04/20/2021
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	530,200
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Dr. Kate Darling is a leading expert in robot ethics and policy. She’s a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, a former fellow at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, and the Yale Information Society Project. Darling’s work has been featured by the New Yorker, the Guardian, PBS, the Boston Globe, Wired, Slate, NPR, and more.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

Author's Note: What Is a Robot, Anyway? xvii

I Work, Weaponry, Responsibility 1

1 Workers Trained and Engineered 3

2 Integrating the New Breed 37

3 Trespassers: Assigning Responsibility for Autonomous Decisions 60

II Companionship 87

4 Robots versus Toasters 89

5 (Hu)man's Best Friend: The History of Companion Animals 113

6 A New Category of Relationship 135

7 The Real Issues with Robot Companionship 156

III Violence, Empathy, and Rights 173

8 Western Animal and Robot Rights Theories 175

9 Free Willy: Western Animal Rights in Practice 186

10 Don't Kick the Robot 203

Final Thoughts: Predicting the Future 226

Notes 231

Acknowledgments 294

Index 295

Editorial Reviews

05/03/2021

Darling, a researcher at MIT’s media lab, debuts with an upbeat if inconsistent tract on humans’ relationship with artificial intelligence. Challenging the notion that robots will soon replace humans in the workforce and could “outpace human intelligence and take control of the world,” Darling insists that robots shouldn’t be seen as replacements for humans, and calls attention to their ability to do “dirty, dull and dangerous” work, such as mining and certain military operations. Drawing on humans’ relationships with animals, she ponders the ethical and legal implications of advancing technology, and how humans should approach AI: she addresses why people get emotional about robots (such as R2-D2), linking it to a human tendency to anthropomorphize animals and pets, and considers if aggression toward robots marks the same lack of empathy as animal abuse. She also insists that AI creators and users be held responsible for machines that “misbehave,” and cautions against a future in which companies that claim “the robot did it” are let off the hook. While entertaining, Darling wanders out on tangents (her treatment of the cat lady trope, for example) that lack cohesion. Readers curious about AI’s ethical conundrums, though, will find this a breezy enough primer. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

03/12/2021

Advances in artificial intelligence and robotics create speculation about what our future relationships with artificial intelligence and robots will be like. We most often compare robots to humans, but Darling (MIT Media Lab) suggests that a more apt, less restrictive analogy would be to compare them to animals, who experience the world differently from humans (like robots do). There are differences: animals will never learn to vacuum or build cars, but they also can learn to manage the unexpected more easily than a machine; regardless, we humans tend to anthropomorphize both animals and robots. Darling's book is divided into three sections. The first discusses robots as "a supplement to our own abilities," improving workplace safety for humans by doing jobs that are dirty, dull and/or dangerous, and collaborating with humans, as animals have for millennia. The second section covers robots and animals as companions; the third examines animal and robot rights. Darling includes a thorough discussion of the law and ethics surrounding robotics and AI. Images of robots, from pop culture and scientific history, are featured throughout. VERDICT Thought-provoking popular science that will be of interest to anyone curious about the past, present, or future of robot—human interaction.—Rachel Owens, Daytona State Coll. Lib., FL

Library Journal

2021-02-24
Asimov’s rules of robots require that they shall not harm humans. But what obligations do humans have toward robots in turn?

MIT Media Lab researcher Darling believes that the long-awaited robotics revolution is just around the corner, with people wondering not whether but when they’ll be replaced by robots “against the backdrop of broader economic and social anxiety.” Some worry is well placed, but much is not, for robots are likeliest to be “delegated jobs that qualify as one of the three Ds: tasks that are dirty, dull, or dangerous for humans.” Indeed, Darling notes, Elon Musk once built an autonomous assembly line for his Tesla electric car only to discover that robots were not yet smart enough to figure out and deal with unexpected glitches in the manufacturing process; a repentant Musk “tweeted that human workers were underrated.” Robots are best at single specialized tasks and repetitive processes—for now. Separate questions arise when robots become companions and pets. In that vein, Darling engagingly examines robots and their uses in relation to our interactions with animals—and not just pets, but also working animals such as donkeys and horses, bred over years to help with specific tasks that are difficult for humans to accomplish alone. The author notes that in the instance of both robots and animals, “we have an inherent tendency to anthropomorphize—to project our own behaviors, experiences, and emotions onto other entities.” Animals please us in part because we ascribe our best qualities to them, and in the same way, robots “engage us because we’re drawn to the recognizable human cues in their behavior.” A minor shortcoming of this book is Darling’s cursory attention to the problem of abuse, for if animals suffer so much hardship at human hands, so might those machines. Still, she provides a useful addition to a body of literature that is growing at a rapid pace.

A provocative work of ethics that may prove altogether timely given the state of the technology.

Kirkus Reviews

A New Scientist Best Book of 2021

“Well-researched, well-developed, and well-written, Darling’s innovative proposal—to use our history of human-animal interactions as a blueprint for the future of human-robot interactions—is a must read for anyone interested in the emerging ethics of robotics. The New Breed raises serious questions and provides some intriguing answers.”
—Irene M. Pepperberg, PhD; Associate Professor at Harvard and author of the New York Times bestseller Alex & Me

"In this extraordinary and wide-ranging book, Kate Darling fundamentally reframes how we should understand these new forces within our life. From their effect upon the nature of work, to their critical role in the emotional life of many, robots will matter much as animals have mattered. Indeed, when we examine the role of design, Darling’s perspective helps us see how they will matter much more."
—Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard Law School

“Inspired by how humans have partnered with animals throughout history, Darling, a robot nerd who calls her toddler 'Babybot', explores the fascinating emotional connection we have with our robots and makes a compelling case for a bright future where robots are our collaborators and companions.”
—Dr. Rana el Kaliouby, scientist and entrepreneur and author of Girl Decoded

"The New Breed is a riveting and engaging book, full of wit and wisdom. It goes beyond the tired tropes of utopia and dystopia, and presents a nuanced and smart take on our relationships to robots.”
—Bruce Schneier, author of Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyperconnected World

"Endless ink has been spilled on AI and our robot future. Just when it seems there's nothing left to be said, along comes Kate Darling's book. For the first time, it seems we're having the conversation we ought to be having."
—Tim O’Reilly, Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media

“[An] original, humane book.”
—Nature

“The New Breed offers readers an energetic and witty overview of how our relations with animals can deliver useful insights into how robots might be incorporated into human society…By examining the past and present of our relationships with animals, [Darling] shows how we might learn lessons that will help us shape our technological future for the better.”
—Science

“[Darling's] timely book urges us to focus on the legal, ethical and social issues regarding consumer robotics to make sure the robotic future works well for all of us.”
—New Scientist

“Darling engagingly examines robots and their uses in relation to our interactions with animals—and not just pets, but also working animals such as donkeys and horses…[S]he provides a useful addition to a body of literature that is growing at a rapid pace. A provocative work of ethics that may prove altogether timely given the state of the technology.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“[Darling] lays out in detail the vexing issues—robot rights, robot accountability, our fears of a robot takeover, our deep-seated anthropomorphism that leads to surprising attachments to these machines…a thoughtful, constructive starting point.”
—Booklist

“Thought-provoking popular science that will be of interest to anyone curious about the past, present, or future of robot–human interaction.”
—Library Journal

From the Publisher