Robotic Co-Evolution or K.O. of Robo-Evolution – Quo Vadis, Digital Humanism?

摘要

Social Robotics is one of the most innovative fields in robotics research. However, the current struggle for an adequate definition of “social robots” leads, a.o., to different interpretations for the status of this innovativeness. With respect to the recently emerging idea of a Digital Humanism, these controversies are of importance since the co-creation of social relations between humans and robots directly affects the concept of human-computer co-evolution; and thus the very core of (digital) humanism. Therefore, in this paper we reconstruct important related discourse threads of Robophilosophy conference contributions since 2014 with a particular focus on understanding humanity. Based on this, we confront these systematic scientific insights with the Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanism and reveal its shortcomings in providing a consistent as well as robust conceptual basis for its own humanistic claims (which we nevertheless support from a more general perspective). By emphasizing inconsistencies in the manifesto, we argue that any kind of humanism, and especially the digital one, requires a careful and methodically reflected conceptual basis in order to not end up fueling systemic problems that the manifesto itself accuses for having made the system failing.