Towards Robots as Agents of Regeneration
摘要
This chapter advances a vision for robotics grounded in multi-life cycle design principles that foster regenerative and pluriversal futures. We challenge dominant paradigms in robotics, marked by linear production models, universal solutions, and efficiency-driven values, and propose strengthening and foregrounding alternative approaches centered on circular economy strategies that extend robots across multiple life cycles of use, adaptation, and renewal. Drawing from cultural robotics, regenerative design, and pluriversal theory, we position multi-life cycle robots as evolving agents embedded within specific cultural and ecological contexts rather than disposable technological artifacts. Through scenarios exploring aging societies, tacit knowledge transmission, and community ownership models, we demonstrate how circular design principles enable technical durability alongside cultural and emotional longevity. The chapter is positioned as a starting point for a critical framework across four dimensions—Cultural Situatedness, Value Creation, Regenerative Impact, and Relational Agency—that challenge currently dominant, universalizing assumptions in robotics. This framework aims to provide actionable questions to support the design of robots that honor diverse knowledge systems, strengthen community agency, and contribute to ecological regeneration. By reframing robotics through multi-life cycle thinking and pluriversal design, we call for more research and practice that positions robots as co-creative partners in supporting situated, diverse, and equitable forms of flourishing for both human and more-than-human worlds.