On the Triple Construction of Robots, Human and Society in the Robotocene

• In Event: Automation and the Transition to the Robotocene: Towards a Robotocene?

Abstract

The expression of the robotocene captures the configuration of contemporary social-technological change. The author clarifies four types of the robot discourse: (1) replacement discourse (human beings has been deprived of their works or replaced by the robot in certain workplace, including those in harmful environment); (2) assistant discourse (the robot can be assistant to human being especially those disabled persons, senior citizens, and children, etc.); (3) enhancement discourse (the robot can be used to enhance human life, even can be a perfect partner, so as to bring brand-new life experience to human being); and (4) alienation discourse (the robot will be an autonomous agent to get out of control which will result in the Frankenstein effect). All of the discourse involve ethical, social and legal issues, and in general seems to necessitate enhancement of human being herself, and improvement of the governance structure of human society. It is argued that the human being has to be re-intelligentialized to match the power of intelligent robots as well as the complexity of this increasingly intelligent world. This kind of match has two aspects: One is the match in that we need to be equipped and empowered with the intelligent devices in order to protect oneself without being harmed by the robot and other technologies; The other is the match in that we can build-in the capacity to help us to establish more convenient dialogue relationship with the robot and other agencies so as to better understand and adapt to the intelligent environment around them. This can be done by a variety means including development of the embedded technologies and new mediated technologies. Whatever the means are, only if this match be achieved, can the human being win the freedom in the robotocene. Indeed, the history has approached to a point where the human being should not only use technology to cope with the natural force, but also use technology to cope with technology, and finally to transform themselves and the society through technology. In this way, the property exchange between human, technology, and social structure is inevitable, and the new distribution mode of responsibility is constantly brought about. In short, we need the triple construction of the robot, human being and the society, in order that we can have an acceptable and desirable robotocene.

Author

• Dazhou Wang, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences