ABSTRACT
This chapter tries to show how robots are imagined as children and how child development models are used to model their development. Robotic researchers are interested, then, in the social dynamics that take place when social bodies interact. Social scaffolding between adults and children is an architectural structure mimicked by robotic scientists when developing social robotic systems. There is a relational aspect to the machine that is supported by encouraging adults to reflect on the machine as a child. This draws together humans and machines as particular kinds of relational and bonded entities. Machines are now imagined to perform these roles, so we must return to an understanding of the conceptualization of humans and theories of human bonds that highlight the affective aspects of exchange. In general, humans seem to possess a spontaneous cognitive capacity to project social agency and narratives on nonhuman phenomena, though this is difficult in some children and adults with autism.
