Abstract

Manufacturing-, hospital-, and transportation-related deaths and injuries are, unfortunately, often among the grim effects of production and mobility. These deaths and injuries have not ceased to be a factor despite decades of efforts on safety and risk management. Deaths and injuries that are associated with robots and other autonomous entities are often placed in a different light than other sorts of incidents, with themes and images of murder, domination, and malice introduced from science fiction and popular discourse into these events. Potentials for anti-robot backlash and security breaches have apparently also increased, despite extensive research on how to make robots more palatable and attractive to human workers. This article explores how deaths and injuries by robots and autonomous systems have been distinguished from other kinds of lethal incidents; it examines the implications of these assignments for how the incidents are handled in terms of safety and risk assessment, as well as in discourse on work itself. The kinds of methodical and detailed after-crash analyses of airline accidents are needed to analyze incidents related to autonomous entities. As the kinds and numbers of robots and autonomous systems (including self-driving vehicles and individuals’ prostheses) increases, variations in the narrative themes associated with these deaths are developing and efforts to foster more accepting attitudes on the part of humans to robots have expanded, despite the value of the human survival tendencies that are linked with healthy distrust and distance. The article discusses how “death by robot” narratives are employed in efforts to characterize workplace and infrastructure automation issues, including the prospects for subsequent anti-robot sabotage or destruction on the part of workers. Promotional rather than protective design strategies and social discourse could unfortunately influence workers to be at ease with robots that are potentially unpredictable and dangerous. The article explores how the robot-human death connection has the potential to shape the character of many workplaces, and projects futures in which the “wildness” and eccentricities of both robots and humans can coexist safely and be respected.