Future Challenges of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Nursing: What Can We Learn from Monsters in Popular Culture?

Abstract

It is highly likely that artificial intelligence (AI) will be implemented in nursing robotics in various forms, both in medical and surgical robotic instruments, but also as different types of droids and humanoids, physical reinforcements, and also animal/pet robots. Exploring and discussing AI and robotics in nursing and health care before these tools become commonplace is of great importance. We propose that monsters in popular culture might be studied with the hope of learning about situations and relationships that generate empathic capacities in their monstrous existences. The aim of the article is to introduce the theoretical framework and assumptions behind this idea. Both robots and monsters are posthuman creations. The knowledge we present here gives ideas about how nursing science can address the postmodern, technologic, and global world to come. Monsters therefore serve as an entrance to explore technologic innovations such as AI. Analyzing when and why monsters step out of character can provide important insights into the conceptualization of caring and nursing as a science, which is important for discussing these empathic protocols, as well as more general insight into human knowledge. The relationship between caring, monsters, robotics, and AI is not as farfetched as it might seem at first glance.