2 Boys and 2 Robots
Back in January 2006, I spoke on a panel following a production of a play entitled The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Robot by Edward Einhorn; the play was part of NEUROfest with Untitled Theater in New York City. The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Robot is described as “a Pinocchio tale in reverse, presented as a fairy tale from a foreign culture—the culture of people with Asperger’s Syndrome” and featured “puppetry and design elements inspired by the work of autistic artists.” I was thinking of the play today—and of the use plastic rollers for part of the robot’s anatomy—in reading about two autistic boys and their robots:
- Middle-schooler Kyle Gilland (Arizona) helped to make a miniature robot with his fellow students and some engineering students.
- 12-year-old Nick Drennan (Connecticut) has written a comic book starring Super Botley, a “robot whose primary function is to save the city from monsters and evil things.”
I have tended to be somewhat wary of references to robots—mechanical beings—and autism due to Bruno Bettelheim’s description of “Joey the mechanical boy” as I wrote in What’s Wrong with the Computer Metaphor of Autism:
Metaphors of the machine have long been used to describe persons with autism; Bruno Bettelheim’s account of “Joey: The Mechanical Boy” appeared in Scientific American in March of 1959. The machine metaphor can even be seen as embedded in the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for autism, as it lists “stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms eg [sic]: hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements” as examples of the “restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviour, interests and activities” used to diagnose autism. Kids with autism are said to move their bodies in a machine-like manner.
As the robots made by Kyle and Nick suggest, though, there’s nothing inherently wrong with robots in a discussion about autism, especially when it is a real robot under construction, or a robot character like Super Botley. Saving cities from “monsters and evil things” is no small feat.
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POSTED IN: Asperger's Syndrome, Metaphor, Technology
4 opinions for 2 Boys and 2 Robots
Club 166
May 1, 2007 at 2:19 am
Buddy Boy has always wanted to be something mechanical. He doesn’t want to be an airline pilot, he wants to be the plane.
He also pretends that he is a robot at times.
Liz gets upset at times, but I think it’s harmless.
BlueNight
May 2, 2007 at 12:47 am
I learned to read since I was three. I enjoyed Star Trek and science fiction. My favorites were Isaac Asimov’s robot stories, Star Trek’s Data, and Hasbro’s Transformers (the TV series and the toys).
I’ve always been fascinated with nonhumans and artificial intelligences in particular. I’m a big fan of stories that feature AI rights.
I’ve been developing, for the past six years, a philosophy that explained humans. It has reached a level of maturity I would never have expected. It could revolutionize the search for humanlike Artificial Intelligence, along with economics, philosophy, psychology, etc. Its purpose was, originally, solely to help me understand the world of NTs.
I take it as a complement when someone remarks on my Aspie traits, and I take it as the gravest insult when someone dismisses a mistake I made with “Well, you’re only human.” I also object vigorously when someone remarks that I think too much. From my perspective, I can never spend too much time thinking.
Tonight, I had a striking thought.
Who would win a Turing test first, a chatbot or an Aspie?
(The Turing test is the gold standard of AI research; if the average person thinks they’re text-chatting with a person, when they’re really text-chatting with a computer program, the program passes the Turing test.)
melody
May 3, 2007 at 11:47 am
Funny, I had never really given much thought, connection, to the fact that my Aspie son prefers to be anything but human. He often plays as though he is a machine, an animal and clearly would change into one or the other if he could.
BlueNight, my money’s on the Aspie.
Michelle
Feb 7, 2008 at 6:08 pm
I love it! My Aspie 13 yr old used to talk like a computer when he was younger. “If you’d like to leave the house, please click on the doorknob.” It was great fun to play with him in this manner and it never occurred to me that he wasn’t acting like every other little boy. He wasn’t diagnosed until age 11, and most of the computer like talking has faded, but my world is still very entertaining as my 7yr old son now talks in phrases from tv… and has a perfectly timed sense of humor!
As a side note, my dad (who we’ve all realized is an Aspie too) is a huge computer guru. When I’d bring home dates in high school I had to explain that my dad was Vulcan and not to panic if he didn’t smile… at all. Well unless he was watching Star Trek or Johnny Carson! :)
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