These are the words by Ken Goldberg quoted from The Robot in the Garden, and they encapsulate the architecture of this engaging book. With insightful discourse, Goldberg explains how telematic participants are allowed to transform, rethink and disembody themselves through remote computer-mediated communications. Art installations and events explain how new communities evolve without the prelude of social classes, gender and ethnic backgrounds. The conditions of reality, being present in real time, conjure an expanded understanding of behaviors and explore philosophical spirituality. Epistemology of robotics on the World Wide Web is the focus of this book, along with the foundation of creating new media.
Epistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge.
Conceptual ideas and relationships are represented in The Robot in the Garden. Goldberg expresses the relationships between technology and shared experiences of telepresence and cybernetic systems. Goldberg quotes and references the theories of many scholars, theorists and technical experts. In the chapter on tele-embodiment and shattered presence, Goldberg discusses how new cultures are formed through the matrix of virtual environments and interactive architectures. Goldberg looks at examples of social machines in relationship to toys.