Reiss, Michael J;
(2023)
Is It Possible that Robots will not One Day Become Persons?
Zygon
10.1111/zygo.12918.
(In press).
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Zygon - 2023 - Reiss - with Fraser Watts and Marius Dorobantu The Relational Turn in Understanding Personhood .pdf - Published Version Download (325kB) | Preview |
Abstract
That robots might become persons is increasingly explored in popular fiction and films and is receiving growing academic analysis. Here, I ask what would be necessary for robots not to become persons at some point. After examining the meanings of “robots” and “persons,” I discuss whether robots might not become persons from a range of perspectives: evolution (which has led over time from species that do not exhibit personhood to species that do), development (personhood is something into which each of us grows), chemistry (must persons be carbon-based and must robots be non–carbon-based?), history (we now consider more entities to be persons than was once the case), and theology (are humans privileged over the rest of creation, and how relevant is panpsychism?). I end by considering some of the implications if/once robots do become persons.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Is It Possible that Robots will not One Day Become Persons? |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/zygo.12918 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12918 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2023 The Authors. Zygon® published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Joint Publication Board of Zygon. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities, Social Issues, Religion, carbon chauvinism, development, evolution, panpsychism, personhood, robots |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10177041 |
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