[Air-L] Typologies of robots - theomorphic robots, anyone?

[Charles M. Ess]

Dear Christian, AoIRists, ICT-ists,

In addition to several other excellent suggestions this query has 
evoked, let me gingerly suggest this article by Trovato et al., as it 
presents a carefully developed taxonomy of theomorphic robots, covering 
examples from a strong range of diverse religious traditions (the 
Abrahamic religions, Buddhism, and Shinto, among others):

Trovato G, De Saint Chamas L, Nishimura M, Paredes R, Lucho C, 
Huerta-Mercado A, Cuellar F (2019) Religion and Robots: Towards the 
Synthesis of Two Extremes. Int J of Soc Robotics. 
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-019-00553-8

I will confess to stumbling over the idea of a "theomorphic" robot more 
than once when I first encountered this article, and I'm certain the 
highly secular-rational among us will do so as well. Equally certain: 
attempting to map the epistemological, ontological, and/or metaphysical 
assumptions in play in these worldviews vis-a-vis more secular ones is, 
um, an interesting exercise.

But whatever one's personal convictions, etc., may be - for the very 
large portions of the world's populations who remain / become 
"religious" in one way or another, for better and for worse, these 
devices are increasingly important, and hence need to be taken on board, 
I think, in our efforts to understand, e.g., what Human-Machine 
Communication might mean in these contexts (so the work of Andrew 
Guzman, Steve Jones, and many, many others in the HMC world).  They are 
obviously also of direct relevance in Digital Religion (e.g., Heidi 
Campbell and Pauline Cheong, as a start, who are editing the forthcoming 
Oxford Handbook of Digital Religion).

In any event, happy reading and good luck!
- charles ess



On 14/06/2021 22:03, Christian Fuchs wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> does anyone know about publications where there is a typology of robots, 
> i.e. not unjustified lists of types of robots (e.g. 
> https://www.allonrobots.com/types-of-robots/ is not what I am interested 
> in = lists without theory), but a distinction of different types of 
> robots based on a combination of theoretical criteria of distinction 
> presented e.g. in the form of a table or figure with at least two 
> dimensions ?
> 
> Thank you for sharing any references you might have come across 
> featuring such typologies...
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> Christian
> 
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-- 
Professor Emeritus
University of Oslo
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<http://ifiptc9.org/9-8/>

Fellow, Siebold-Collegiums Institute for Advanced Studies, 
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