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Conclusion: Terminating the Machine

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Challenging Sociality

Part of the book series: Social and Cultural Studies of Robots and AI ((SOCUSRA))

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Abstract

This chapter, the conclusion, proposes an alternative model to the egocentric individualistic model of autism which has been dissolving the boundaries between humans and machines. Egocentric individualists are challenged by anti-humanists who want to reject human essentialism in favour of poly-perverse monsters, cyborgs and ontologies that equate persons and things. These two modes of thought arise out of each other, for cyborgs would have nothing to dissolve if there was not a radical ontological break driven by egocentric individualism. Instead I propose a humanistic I-you interrelatedness to make sense of human beings, and the set of those human characteristics that psychologists frame and label to produce ‘autism’. As I-you interrelatedness approaches privilege the centrality of interpersonal experience as a dual back and forth, the humanistic approach does not foreclose a you in favour of an I or an I in favour of a you. Humanistic I-you approaches allow us to explore what is possible with robots as tools to help humanity without following the course I describe in this book of becoming analogous with them and merging into machines.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Technology, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

    Kathleen Richardson

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  1. Kathleen Richardson
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Richardson, K. (2018). Conclusion: Terminating the Machine. In: Challenging Sociality. Social and Cultural Studies of Robots and AI. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74754-5_8

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