Episode #21 - Mark Coeckelbergh on Robots and the Tragedy of Automation

In this episode, I talk to Mark Coeckelbergh. Mark is a Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Vienna and President of the Society for Philosophy and Technology. He also has an affiliation as Professor of Technology and Social Responsibility at the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility, De Montfort University, UK. We talk about robots and philosophy (robophilosophy), focusing on two topics in particular. First, the rise of the carebots and the mechanisation of society, and second, Hegel's master-slave dialectic and its application to our relationship with technology.


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Show Notes0:00 - Introduction2:00 - What is a robot?3:30 - What is robophilosophy? Why is it important?4:45 - The phenomenological approach to roboethics6:48 - What are carebots? Why do people advocate their use?8:40 - Ethical objections to the use of carebots11:20 - Could a robot ever care for us?13:25 - Carebots and the Problem of Emotional Deception18:16 - Robots, modernity and the mechanisation of society21:50 - The Master-Slave Dialectic in Human-Robot Relationships25:17 - Robots and our increasing alienation from reality30:40 - Technology and the automation of human beings 
Relevant LinksMark's homepageHuman Being @Risk by Mark CoeckelberghNew Romantic Cyborgs by Mark Coeckelbergh'Artificial agents, good care and modernity' by Mark Coeckelbergh'The tragedy of the master: automation, vulnerability and distance' by Mark Coeckelbergh'The Carebot Dystopia: an Analysis' by John DanaherHegel's Master-Slave Dialectic - explained on the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy