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SOCIAL AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF ROBOTS AND AI
Enchanting
Robots
Intimacy, Magic, and Technology
Maciej Musiał
Social and Cultural Studies of Robots and AI
Series Editors
Kathleen Richardson
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Media
De Montfort University
Leicester, UK
Cathrine Hasse
Danish School of Education
Aarhus University
Copenhagen, Denmark
Teresa Heffernan
Department of English
St. Mary’s University
Halifax, NS, Canada
This is a groundbreaking series that investigates the ways in which the
“robot revolution” is shifting our understanding of what it means to be
human. With robots filling a variety of roles in society—from soldiers to
loving companions—we can see that the second machine age is already
here. This raises questions about the future of labor, war, our environ-
ment, and even human-to human-relationships.
Enchanting Robots
Intimacy, Magic, and Technology
Maciej Musiał
Department of Philosophy
Adam Mickiewicz University
in Poznań
Poznań, Poland
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To my little daughter Izabela
for enchanting my world
with the magic of love
Acknowledgements
vii
viii Acknowledgements
1 Introduction 1
ix
x Contents
Index 155
List of Figures
xi
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
In this chapter, I discuss the topic of robots enchanting humans. That is,
robots that are perceived by humans as magical enough to develop inti-
mate relationships with them. I argue that robots are enchanting humans
because humans are becoming increasingly disenchanted—in the double
sense. First, humans and the relationships among them are becoming dis-
enchanted in the sense that they are perceived as possessing no unique,
extraordinary, and “magical” qualities that cannot be rationally calculated
and engineered in robots—this is the disenchantment of humans and the
relationships among them. Second, humans are becoming disenchanted in
the sense that people and their intimate relationships are increasingly per-
ceived as a source of disappointment—this is disenchantment with humans
and the relationships among them. Humans are therefore increasingly
seen as non-unique and problematic, while robots are increasingly seen as
possessing all the advantages of humans and none of their disadvantages.
To examine the abovementioned issues, I refer to the field of robot
ethics, particularly to the discussions that are answering the question
of how we should think about lovebots, sexbots, and carebots, as well
as the question of how we should think about humans and their inti-
mate relationships. I examine both positions that are enthusiastic about
the intimate relationships with robots and those that are skeptical about
them. Nevertheless, my aim is not to decide which side of the discus-
sion is right, but to understand where these positions come from, and
where they might lead, by embedding them into more general cultural
detail in the next chapter). They engage likewise with chatbots such as
ELIZA and, indeed, with computers in general (Borenstein and Arkin
2016; Reeves and Nass 1996; Sparrow 2002; Yeoman and Mars 2012).
Whether animation, anthropomorphization, and emotional attachment
to technology differ from the treatment of other inanimate objects in
quantity, in quality, or not at all, is a topic for a separate discussion.
Simply put, if it is natural (in some sense) that people animate,
anthropomorphize, and emotionally attach to inanimate objects, espe-
cially to technological devices, it does not seem convincing to suggest
that they will not do so with sophisticated robots designed specifically to
stimulate such behavior (Sharkey and Sharkey 2006).
There are thus serious reasons to believe that intimate relationships
between robots and humans are a highly possible scenario. Nevertheless,
I would like to emphasize that even if human beings never actually
become enchanted by robots to the extent of forming intimate relation-
ships with them, I still consider discussions that seriously take such sce-
narios into account to be important and telling since they can tell us a
lot about our ideas about robots, humans, and intimate relationships in
general. Put simply, by examining this scenario and our attitudes toward
it we can learn about ourselves. Actually, the very fact that many of us
think this scenario is possible seems to constitute significant information
about our culture.
As I mentioned above, I will focus on lovebots and sexbots, on the
one hand, and carebots, on the other. What I find surprising in the dis-
cussions about those kinds of robots is that they engender two separate
discourses. Scholars who talk about lovebots and sexbots very rarely raise
the question of carebots and those who are interested in carebots typ-
ically remain silent about lovebots and sexbots. I aim to connect and
combine those two discussions, not only because they both involve inti-
mate relationships, but also, mainly, because they involve very similar
issues and disagreements and complement each other.
It is important to notice that issues connected with intimacy robots
can be discussed, as Matthias Scheutz emphasizes, from various “axes of
evaluation,” including “single individual vs. partnership or relationship,
personal effects vs. large-scale social dynamics, judging by effects vs. fun-
damental dignity or norms about sex and relationships” (Scheutz and
Arnold 2016). Similar distinctions are also proposed by Robert Sparrow
(2002; “effects on the user” and “alterations of human-human rela-
tionships”) and John Danaher et al. (2017; individual good and social
2 ROBOTS ENCHANTING HUMANS 17
good). I would therefore first like to examine the issues and discussions
connected with individual good, user perspective, and personal effects,
and afterwards examine problems and debates linked to the social good,
societal perspective, and effects on society (especially on the quality of
intimate relationships). There are also problems—such as the question
of “human touch”—that will pervade throughout the whole chapter on
both levels of discussion. This is obviously a result of the fact that both
areas are intertwined. I still believe, however, that it is useful to distin-
guish them.
In both areas of discussion, there are arguments “for” and “against”
intimacy robots (as well as counter-arguments) delivered by groups I will
call enthusiasts and skeptics. It is worth pointing out at the very beginning
that, regarding issues at the level of individual good, enthusiasts are on
the offensive (they provide arguments “for” intimacy robots) while skep-
tics remain on the defensive (developing counter-arguments to enthusi-
asts’ claims). At the level of social good, however, skeptics are on the
attack (they present arguments “against” intimacy robots) while enthu-
siasts mostly defend (by forming counter-arguments). This is one reason
why differentiating between these two levels is productive and reasona-
ble. Nevertheless, I need to emphasize, once again, that for each prob-
lem I try to give justice to both enthusiasts and skeptics and I do not
aim to adjudicate which side is right. When I criticize any of the posi-
tions I examine, it is only because it is criticized by opponents (I only
reconstruct someone else’s critique) or because I see some general errors
that make the particular position unclear, inconsistent, or getting in the
way of productive discussion. Instead of deciding who is right in his
or her enthusiasm or skepticism, I rather try to understand where this
enthusiasm or pessimism comes from. I try to understand what contem-
porary Western culture can tell us about the debate on intimacy robots,
and what the debate on intimacy robots can tell us about contemporary
Western culture. Rather than choose sides, I try to understand both,
and to identify the main—ethical, axiological, methodological, and
ontological—disagreements and problems that are (implicitly or explic-
itly) expressed in the discussions, but that are also valid and important
in contemporary Western culture, in general—especially the problem of
enchantment, disenchantment, and “human touch.”
Before getting to the central point, I would like to briefly mention
a few issues that are not important in my examination, but remain cru-
cial for the general discussion of intimacy robots. First, I will not wade
18 M. MUSIAŁ
2.2.1 Security
Issues of security have multiple levels and all the levels are intertwined
and mixed with each other. I start with the problems that are least
important for my purposes (although they are extremely important in
general) and then I get to those, which are crucial part of my argument.
I briefly discuss issues of physical safety, then look at privacy and data
security; finally, I examine the issue of ontological security.
Physical safety is a crucial element in discussions of robots—not only
intimate ones, but also other kinds (self-driving cars, for example). In
the case of intimacy robots, which, by definition, remain in close contact
with their users, this question is especially important, particularly in the
case of robots meant to care for the elderly or for children. One issue
obviously concerns avoiding any malfunction that might threaten the
users of such robots. While skeptics claim that it is not possible to avoid
2 ROBOTS ENCHANTING HUMANS 19
Throughout the length and breadth of the Roman Empire all but a
very few Roman nobles thus professed the faith of Christ. In the
words of the dying Julian, the Galilaean had conquered.
From this time until our own, Christianity has reigned in the West
with no serious rival. In the VIIth century, when Mahommed’s Arabs,
flushed with the enthusiasm of a new faith which owed something at
least to the relics of Gnosticism, poured in upon an Empire wearied
out alike by perpetual war against the barbarians and by its own civil
and religious dissensions, the Church was compelled to abandon to
them her conquests in Africa and the East. In Europe, however, she
continued in unchecked supremacy, gathering to herself and
assimilating the barbarians who at one time seemed likely to
extinguish all civilization; and she thus became a bond uniting many
nations and languages in one community of faith and thought. She
even succeeded in keeping alive the remains of that Greek art and
learning which still form our best and proudest intellectual
possession, and if during her reign many of the precious monuments
of antiquity perished, the fault was not entirely hers. In every respect,
her rule was supreme; and such enemies as she had in Europe were
those of her own household. The Manichaeans who, as has been
said, once bid fair to deprive her of some of her fairest provinces,
never dared to make open war upon her, and their secret defection
was punished by an unsparing use of the secular arm. The German
Reformation of the XVIth century has probably left her stronger than
before, and the few losses that she has suffered in the Old World
have been more than compensated by the number of lieges she has
succeeded in attaching to herself in the New.
In the days of her infancy, and before she thus came into her
inheritance, Christianity borrowed much from the rivals over which
she was in the long run to reign supreme. Her outward observances,
her ritual, and the organization of her hierarchy, are perhaps all due
to the associations that she finally overcame. The form of her
sacraments, the periods of her fasts and festivals, and institutions
like monachism, cannot be explained without reference to those
religions from whose rivalry she so long suffered. That, in such
matters, the Church should take what was useful to her was, as said
above, part of her consciously expressed policy, and doubtless had
much to do with her speedy triumph. To show that her dogmas also
took many things from the same source would involve an invasion
into the domain of professional theology, for which I have neither
authority nor desire. But if, at some future time, investigation should
show that in this respect also Christianity owes something to her
forerunners and rivals, the argument against her Divine origin would
not thereby be necessarily strengthened. That, in the course of her
development, she acquired characteristics which fitted her to her
environment would be in strict conformity with the laws which appear
to govern the evolution of all institutions; and if the Power ruling the
universe chooses to work by law rather than by what seems to us
like caprice, such a choice does not show Him to be lacking either in
wisdom or benevolence.
As was said at the outset, everyone must be left to place his own
interpretation on the facts here attempted to be set forth. But if, per
impossibile, we could approach the study of the origins of
Christianity with the same mental detachment and freedom from
prejudice with which we might examine the worship of the Syrian
Jupiter Dolichenus or the Scandinavian Odin, we should probably
find that the Primitive Church had no need of the miraculous powers
which were once assigned as the reason for her gradual and steady
advance to all but universal dominion. On the contrary, it may be that
Christianity would then appear as a link—although a most important
and necessary link—in a regular chain of events which began more
than three centuries before she emerged from her birthplace in
Palestine into that Roman world which in three centuries more was
to be hers of right. No sooner had Alexander’s conquests made a
world-religion possible, than there sprang up, as we have seen, in
his own city of Alexandria, a faith with a far higher and purer idea of
Divinity than any that had until then been known in the West. Then
the germs already present in small fraternities like those of the
Orphics and the Essenes blossomed forth into the fantastic and
unwholesome growths, as we must needs think them, of that
Gnosticism which marked the transition of the ancient world from
Paganism to Christianity. Lastly there came in from the countries
under the influence of Rome’s secular enemy, Persia, the heresy of
Marcion, the religion of Mithras, and the syncretistic policy of Manes
and his continuators. Against all these in turn, Christianity had to
struggle in a contest where the victory was not always on her side:
and if in time she overthrew them all, it can only be because she was
better fitted to the needs of the world than any of her predecessors
or contemporaries.
INDEX