Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
5 folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
10 one.
Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
15 skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
"Android science."
Besides the justification for making robots
20 anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
environments with architectural features such as stairs,
Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
natural communication. "Appearance is very important
25 to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
our future is to interact naturally with people."
Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
30 aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
35 to understand more about ourselves.
To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
cognitive science research can use the robot to study
human perception, communication and other faculties.
40 This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
45 neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
to implement processes that support it in the android."
One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
his artificial creations on real people. He began research
four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
50 casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
people's comfort zones. Because the android's
appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
55 differences in motion and responses will make it seem
strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
natural way it moves.
Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
60 authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
65 Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
answering his own questions.

adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006

Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
5 folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
10 one.
Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
15 skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
"Android science."
Besides the justification for making robots
20 anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
environments with architectural features such as stairs,
Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
natural communication. "Appearance is very important
25 to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
our future is to interact naturally with people."
Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
30 aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
35 to understand more about ourselves.
To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
cognitive science research can use the robot to study
human perception, communication and other faculties.
40 This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
45 neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
to implement processes that support it in the android."
One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
his artificial creations on real people. He began research
four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
50 casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
people's comfort zones. Because the android's
appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
55 differences in motion and responses will make it seem
strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
natural way it moves.
Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
60 authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
65 Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
answering his own questions.

adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006

Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
5 folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
10 one.
Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
15 skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
"Android science."
Besides the justification for making robots
20 anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
environments with architectural features such as stairs,
Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
natural communication. "Appearance is very important
25 to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
our future is to interact naturally with people."
Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
30 aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
35 to understand more about ourselves.
To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
cognitive science research can use the robot to study
human perception, communication and other faculties.
40 This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
45 neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
to implement processes that support it in the android."
One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
his artificial creations on real people. He began research
four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
50 casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
people's comfort zones. Because the android's
appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
55 differences in motion and responses will make it seem
strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
natural way it moves.
Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
60 authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
65 Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
answering his own questions.

adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006

Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
5 folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
10 one.
Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
15 skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
"Android science."
Besides the justification for making robots
20 anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
environments with architectural features such as stairs,
Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
natural communication. "Appearance is very important
25 to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
our future is to interact naturally with people."
Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
30 aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
35 to understand more about ourselves.
To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
cognitive science research can use the robot to study
human perception, communication and other faculties.
40 This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
45 neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
to implement processes that support it in the android."
One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
his artificial creations on real people. He began research
four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
50 casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
people's comfort zones. Because the android's
appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
55 differences in motion and responses will make it seem
strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
natural way it moves.
Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
60 authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
65 Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
answering his own questions.

adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006

Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
5 folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
10 one.
Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
15 skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
"Android science."
Besides the justification for making robots
20 anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
environments with architectural features such as stairs,
Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
natural communication. "Appearance is very important
25 to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
our future is to interact naturally with people."
Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
30 aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
35 to understand more about ourselves.
To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
cognitive science research can use the robot to study
human perception, communication and other faculties.
40 This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
45 neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
to implement processes that support it in the android."
One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
his artificial creations on real people. He began research
four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
50 casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
people's comfort zones. Because the android's
appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
55 differences in motion and responses will make it seem
strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
natural way it moves.
Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
60 authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
65 Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
answering his own questions.

adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006

Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
5 folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
10 one.
Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
15 skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
"Android science."
Besides the justification for making robots
20 anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
environments with architectural features such as stairs,
Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
natural communication. "Appearance is very important
25 to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
our future is to interact naturally with people."
Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
30 aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
35 to understand more about ourselves.
To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
cognitive science research can use the robot to study
human perception, communication and other faculties.
40 This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
45 neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
to implement processes that support it in the android."
One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
his artificial creations on real people. He began research
four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
50 casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
people's comfort zones. Because the android's
appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
55 differences in motion and responses will make it seem
strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
natural way it moves.
Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
60 authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
65 Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
answering his own questions.

adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006

Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
5 folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
10 one.
Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
15 skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
"Android science."
Besides the justification for making robots
20 anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
environments with architectural features such as stairs,
Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
natural communication. "Appearance is very important
25 to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
our future is to interact naturally with people."
Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
30 aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
35 to understand more about ourselves.
To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
cognitive science research can use the robot to study
human perception, communication and other faculties.
40 This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
45 neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
to implement processes that support it in the android."
One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
his artificial creations on real people. He began research
four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
50 casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
people's comfort zones. Because the android's
appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
55 differences in motion and responses will make it seem
strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
natural way it moves.
Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
60 authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
65 Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
answering his own questions.

adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006

Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
5 folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
10 one.
Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
15 skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
"Android science."
Besides the justification for making robots
20 anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
environments with architectural features such as stairs,
Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
natural communication. "Appearance is very important
25 to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
our future is to interact naturally with people."
Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
30 aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
35 to understand more about ourselves.
To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
cognitive science research can use the robot to study
human perception, communication and other faculties.
40 This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
45 neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
to implement processes that support it in the android."
One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
his artificial creations on real people. He began research
four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
50 casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
people's comfort zones. Because the android's
appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
55 differences in motion and responses will make it seem
strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
natural way it moves.
Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
60 authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
65 Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
answering his own questions.

adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006

Texto I
E SE...não tivéssemos medo?

Quem diria: aquele frio na espinha na hora de pular
do trampolim é essencial para a nossa vida. O medo
acaba com a gente quando estamos vendo um filme de
terror ou tentando pular na piscina, mas, sem ele, não
5 seríamos nada, coisa nenhuma. Na ausência do medo,
não teríamos nenhuma reação em situações de perigo,
como a aproximação de mastodonte na idade do gelo ou
quando o carro vai dar de cara no poste. Essa proteção
acontece involuntariamente: a sensação de temor chega
10 antes às partes do cérebro que regem nossas ações
involuntárias que ao córtex, a casca cerebral onde está o
raciocínio.
Além desse medo primordial, existe o medo
criado pela mente. Afinal, não corremos risco iminente
15 de não perpetuar a espécie quando gaguejamos diante
de uma possível paquera, ao tentar pedir aumento para o
chefe ou quando construímos muralhas e bombas atômicas.
Pelo contrário. "O medo de ser ridicularizado ou
menos amado pelo outro é a fonte de neuroses e fobias
20 sociais, mas está presente em todas as pessoas", diz a
psicóloga Maria Tereza Giordan Góes, autora do livro
Vivendo Sem medo de Ter Medo. E o que aconteceria se
seguíssemos com o medo involuntário mas deixássemos
de ter o medo imaginário? Pois é, também não seríamos
25 muita coisa.
O medo é um conceito fundamental para Freud, o
pai da psicanálise. Segundo ele, é o medo da castração,
de ser ridicularizado ou menos amado, que faz os
homens lutarem por objetivos e se submeterem a provas
30 sexuais e sociais. Sem medo, poderíamos ficar sem
motivação de competir, inovar, ser melhor que o vizinho.
Pior: viveríamos num caos danado, já que o medo de ser
culpado e castigado é raiz para instituições e religiões.
"Nunca uma civilização concedeu tanto peso à culpa e
35 ao arrependimento quanto o cristianismo", afirma o historiador
francês Jean Delumeau, autor do livro História do
Medo no Ocidente.
"O medo se reproduz na forma da autoridade física
e espiritual", afirma a psicanalista Cleide Monteiro. "Ele
40 está na base de instituições que podem ser opressoras,
mas fazem a sociedade andar para a frente longe de
barbáries." Para a psicanálise, funciona assim: quando
eu reconheço em mim a possibilidade de fazer mal a
alguém, a enxergo também em você, então passo a temê-lo.
45 Para podermos conviver numa boa, criamos coisas
superiores para temer, como a polícia e a religião. Sem o
medo, não teríamos nada disso. Sairíamos direto na faca.

NARLOCK, Leandro. Revista Superinteressante. (adaptado).

Texto I
E SE...não tivéssemos medo?

Quem diria: aquele frio na espinha na hora de pular
do trampolim é essencial para a nossa vida. O medo
acaba com a gente quando estamos vendo um filme de
terror ou tentando pular na piscina, mas, sem ele, não
5 seríamos nada, coisa nenhuma. Na ausência do medo,
não teríamos nenhuma reação em situações de perigo,
como a aproximação de mastodonte na idade do gelo ou
quando o carro vai dar de cara no poste. Essa proteção
acontece involuntariamente: a sensação de temor chega
10 antes às partes do cérebro que regem nossas ações
involuntárias que ao córtex, a casca cerebral onde está o
raciocínio.
Além desse medo primordial, existe o medo
criado pela mente. Afinal, não corremos risco iminente
15 de não perpetuar a espécie quando gaguejamos diante
de uma possível paquera, ao tentar pedir aumento para o
chefe ou quando construímos muralhas e bombas atômicas.
Pelo contrário. "O medo de ser ridicularizado ou
menos amado pelo outro é a fonte de neuroses e fobias
20 sociais, mas está presente em todas as pessoas", diz a
psicóloga Maria Tereza Giordan Góes, autora do livro
Vivendo Sem medo de Ter Medo. E o que aconteceria se
seguíssemos com o medo involuntário mas deixássemos
de ter o medo imaginário? Pois é, também não seríamos
25 muita coisa.
O medo é um conceito fundamental para Freud, o
pai da psicanálise. Segundo ele, é o medo da castração,
de ser ridicularizado ou menos amado, que faz os
homens lutarem por objetivos e se submeterem a provas
30 sexuais e sociais. Sem medo, poderíamos ficar sem
motivação de competir, inovar, ser melhor que o vizinho.
Pior: viveríamos num caos danado, já que o medo de ser
culpado e castigado é raiz para instituições e religiões.
"Nunca uma civilização concedeu tanto peso à culpa e
35 ao arrependimento quanto o cristianismo", afirma o historiador
francês Jean Delumeau, autor do livro História do
Medo no Ocidente.
"O medo se reproduz na forma da autoridade física
e espiritual", afirma a psicanalista Cleide Monteiro. "Ele
40 está na base de instituições que podem ser opressoras,
mas fazem a sociedade andar para a frente longe de
barbáries." Para a psicanálise, funciona assim: quando
eu reconheço em mim a possibilidade de fazer mal a
alguém, a enxergo também em você, então passo a temê-lo.
45 Para podermos conviver numa boa, criamos coisas
superiores para temer, como a polícia e a religião. Sem o
medo, não teríamos nada disso. Sairíamos direto na faca.

NARLOCK, Leandro. Revista Superinteressante. (adaptado).