The title sequence to HBO’s Westworld is visually and aurally beautiful, melancholic, and ultimately haunting: artifacts–whose artifice is clearly visible–take shape in front of us, manufactured and brought into being by sophisticated devices, presumably robotic ones just like them; their anatomies and shapes and forms and talents are human-like; and that is all we needContinue reading “‘Westworld’ And Our Constitutive Loneliness”
Tag Archives: intentional stance
A Fond Remembrance Of A Canine Friend
My brother’s family lost their pet dog yesterday. ‘G’ was a dachshund, brought home a little over twelve years ago. I have never owned a pet and probably never will; I simply do not have the emotional wherewithal for the caretaking required. I have thus never developed a particularly close relationship with domestic animals; myContinue reading “A Fond Remembrance Of A Canine Friend”
‘Eva’: Love Can Be Skin-Deep (Justifiably)
Kike Maíllo’s Eva makes for an interesting contribution to the ever-growing–in recent times–genre of robotics and artificial intelligence movies. That is because its central concern–the emulation of humanity by robots–which is not particularly novel in itself, is portrayed in familiar and yet distinctive, form. The most common objection to the personhood of the ‘artificially sentient,’Continue reading “‘Eva’: Love Can Be Skin-Deep (Justifiably)”
The ‘Trickery’ of Robots
Maggie Koerth-Baker reports on a case of supposed trickery–(‘How Robots Can Trick You Into Loving Them‘, The New York Times, 17 September 2013)–that has come to light as robots become more ubiquitous and enter an increasing number of social spaces: In the future, more robots will occupy that strange gray zone: doing not only jobsContinue reading “The ‘Trickery’ of Robots”
Report on Concurring Opinions Symposium on Artificial Agents – II
Today, I’m continuing my wrap-up of the Concurring Opinions online symposium on A Legal Theory for Autonomous Artificial Agents. I’ll be noting below the various responses to the book and point to my responses to them (Part I of this wrap-up was posted yesterday). While almost all respondents seem to have seriously engaged with theContinue reading “Report on Concurring Opinions Symposium on Artificial Agents – II”
Samir Chopra 