Robot People or

People‘s Robots?
Synthetic Persons and the Solvation of the Machine
Research Context
• Thesis project: Voices in Humans and Talking
Machines
• Philosophy of Voice
• Experiencing meaning making, embodied semiotics
• Philosophy of technology
• Postphenomenology and the Enactivist paradigm in Cognitive
Science
• Technology mediates intentionality
• Artificial voice acts
• -> Voices as „Technology of The Mind“
• Theory of the Interface
Philosophical Context and method:
Types of I–human–world relations
• Embodiment relation: (I – Technology) –> World
• Hermeneutic relation: I –> (Technology – World)
• Alterity relation: I –> Technology –(–World)
• Background relation: I – (Technology – World)
Question today: Shall robots become
(legal) persons?
European Union:
“Calls on the Commission, when carrying out an impact
assessment of its future legislative instrument, to explore,
analyse and consider the implications of all possible legal
solutions, such as:
creating a specific legal status for robots in the long run,
so that at least the most sophisticated autonomous robots
could be established as having the status of electronic
persons responsible for making good any damage they
may cause, and possibly applying electronic personality to
cases where robots make autonomous decisions or
otherwise interact with third parties independently;”
Sophia, citizen of Saudi Arabia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0_DPi0PmF0
What is a Robot?
Robots
• actuated mechanism programmable in two or more axes
(4.3) with a degree of autonomy (2.2), moving within its
environment, to perform intended tasks. (ISO)
https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:8373:ed-2:v1:en
• “a machine that senses, thinks, and acts (and
communicates).” (M. Siegel)
• industrial robot (noun): 1. an automatically controlled,
reprogrammable multipurpose manipulator programmable
in three or more axes which may be either in place or
mobile for use in industrial automation applications
• industrial robot system (noun): 1. equipment that includes
the robot(s) (hardware and software) consisting of the
manipulator power supply and control system; the end-
effector(s); and any other associated machinery and
equipment within the safeguarded space (RIA)
Robos of 2nd order:
Cyber-Physical systems
• “Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are intelligent robotics systems,
linked with the Internet of Things, or technical systems of
networked computers, robots and artificial intelligence that
interact with the physical world.” (EPRS | European Parliamentary
Research Service Scientific Foresight Unit (STOA))
• "Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are physical and engineered
systems whose operations are monitored, coordinated, controlled
and integrated by a computing and communication core.“
• "Such systems that bridge the cyber-world of computing and
communications with the physical world are referred to as cyber-
physical systems. Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are physical and
engineered systems whose operations are monitored,
coordinated, controlled and integrated by a computing and
communication core. This intimate coupling between the cyber
and physical will be manifested from the nano-world to large-
scale wide-area systems of systems." (Rajkumar, Lee, Sha,
Stankovic 2010)
Echo (The Solvation of the robot
and the Voice)
Personhood
• “A person is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such
as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and
being a part of a culturally established form of social relations
such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility.”
• “Personhood is the status of being a person. Defining personhood
is a controversial topic in philosophy and law and is closely tied
with legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and
liberty. According to law, only a natural person or legal personality
has rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and legal
liability. … Processes through which personhood is recognized
socially and legally vary cross-culturally, demonstrating that
notions of personhood are not universal.” (WIKIPEDIA)
• The criteria for being a person... are designed to capture those
attributes which are the subject of our most humane concern
with ourselves and the source of what we regard as most
important and most problematical in our lives. (Harry G.
Frankfurt)
Property and Ownership
• Philosophy of property: From public to private
goods
• Relationship of Subject and Ownership
• „Wir sind unser Eigentum: sage ich und nehme
etwas zweifaches in uns an: einen Eigenthümer und
ein Eigenthum. Das reine Ich in uns, die Vernunft,
ist Herr unserer Sinnlichkeit, aller unserer geistigen
und körperlichen Kräfte; sie darf sie als Mittel zu
jedem beliebigen Zweck gebrauchen.“ (J. G. Fichte,
1793)
Property Law
• Vertical: citizen – municipality – state - (Internat.
Law)
• Horizontal: Questions between people (not things)
• Property law: Regulates practices described by
notions like control, exclude, use, enjoy, modify,
sell, destroy. (J. Fairfield)
• Evolution path: deals > standards > norms >
codified in laws
• The evolution of property law is tied to technology