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By Alex Zohar, Greg Fass (Econ'11), and Jake Richardson

(Princeton Architectural Press, 80 pages; 2021)

Blending pop culture iconography with the existential threat of technological creations turning on their creators, Emotional Robots is a compulsively readable graphic novella set in an all-too presciently depicted world in which advanced robots successfully compete with humans—in sports, music, and art—in pursuit of emotional intelligence.

Displaced by the robots' technological triumph, humans abandon Earth in search of a new planet to call home. But what happens to the robots when newer, faster, smarter, better robots replace them? What happens when civil unrest grows between robot generations? An astute take on the human condition and the illusory promises of technology, Emotional Robots is captivating fable for the modern age. With keen wit and dark humor, it artfully tackles universal themes urgently relevant to our time, asking readers the question faced by each new generation of humans (and robots): Is history condemned to repeat itself?