This course takes an anthropological approach to robotics, A.I., artificial life, and cyborgs. Focusing on ethnographic studies of robotics and A.I. labs in the U.S., Japan, and India. It introduces students to anthropological methods and theory and interrogates assumptions on kinship, personhood, gender, class, race, and religion. Does “culture” unconsciously affect ideas about humanity engineers encode into their creations? How can preexisting notions lead them to reproduce or challenge familiar social hierarchies in their visions of the future they attempt to create?