School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Division of Sociology, Mälardalen University, Sweden.
Department of Social Work, Uppsala University, Sweden.
J Aging Stud. 2024 Dec;71:101272. doi: 10.1016/j.jaging.2024.101272. Epub 2024 Sep 24.
Robotic animals are designed to resemble real, living animals, but at the same time, dementia care guidelines and policies often emphasize the value of transparency in relation to robots-people should not be led to believe that robots have capacities that they in fact lack. However, it is not obvious how to separate truth from lies in everyday care practice. Based on participant observations and interviews with certified assistant nurses and nursing assistants in Swedish nursing homes for people with dementia, this article studies how robotic animals become "real" in care practice. The article takes a posthumanist approach to the co-constitution of aging, care, and technology-a perspective that recognizes that not only care staff and nursing home residents, but also robots and other material things, can take an active part in shaping care practice. The analysis results in four typical situations out of which robotic animals emerge as real, living animals: the cuddle, with its simple but dynamic embodied actions; the comfort, where the robot is used as a resource for distraction and emotional support; the conversation, by which robotic animals' agency is both established and challenged; and the adoption, through which narratives and props are used to establish the robot as a pet. Robots cannot lie, at least not by themselves; instead, robots' deceptive potential is enabled by a network of actors, which is why it is often difficult to draw a clear line between lying and care workers' empathic following.
机器人动物被设计成像真实的、有生命的动物一样，但与此同时，痴呆症护理指南和政策通常强调机器人的透明度的价值——人们不应该被误导，认为机器人具有它们实际上没有的能力。然而，在日常护理实践中，如何区分真假并不明显。本文基于对瑞典痴呆症养老院注册助理护士和护理助理的参与观察和访谈，研究了机器人动物如何在护理实践中变得“真实”。本文采用后人类主义的方法来研究老龄化、护理和技术的共同构成——这种观点认识到，不仅护理人员和养老院居民，而且机器人和其他实物也可以积极参与塑造护理实践。分析结果得出了四种典型情况，机器人动物在这些情况下成为真实的、有生命的动物：拥抱，其简单但动态的体现动作；舒适，机器人被用作分散注意力和情感支持的资源；对话，通过对话建立和挑战机器人的代理权；以及收养，通过叙述和道具将机器人作为宠物来建立。机器人不能撒谎，至少不能自己撒谎；相反，机器人的欺骗潜力是由一系列的行为者所赋予的，这就是为什么很难在撒谎和护理人员的同理心之间划出明确的界限。
