Abstract
AbstractIs it possible for human beings to establish romantic relationships with robots? What kind of otherness, or alterity, will be construed in the process of falling in love with a robot? Can a robotic companion mean more than being a tool for house-work, a caretaker, an aid of self-gratification, or a sex-doll? Phenomenological analysis of love experience suggests that romantic feelings necessarily include experiencing the alterity of the partner as an affective subjectivity that freely, willingly, and passionately commits to its partner. The romantic commitment is expected to stem from the sentient inner selves of the lovers, which is one of the features that robots are lacking. Thus the artificial alterity might disengage our romantic aspirations, and, as argued by many, will make them morally inferior to intraspecies love affairs. The current analysis will restrain from ethical considerations, however, and will focus on whether robots can in principle elicit human feelings of love.
Highlights
Humans have always been dreaming about creating artificial beings that embody idealized visions of men and women suited for being perfect companions and tempting us to fall in love with them
Is it possible for human beings to establish romantic relationships with robots? What kind of otherness, or alterity, will be construed in the process of falling in love with a robot? Can a robotic companion mean more than being a tool for house-work, a caretaker, an aid of selfgratification, or a sex-doll? Phenomenological analysis of love experience suggests that romantic feelings necessarily include experiencing the alterity of the partner as an affective subjectivity that freely, willingly, and passionately commits to its partner
Such a robot would need to have an anthropomorphic body and human-like kinesthetic capabilities, as well as human-like social and empathetic skills. If this were the case, would it be possible for human beings to establish romantic relationships with it? Can a human-like robotic companion really be seen not as a complicated masturbatory device – still a technical device, a mere means of self-satisfaction, but as a true partner in a love relationship? The possibility of it, I think, boils down to the question about the way a future humanoid robot will be experienced from the human point of view
Summary
Humans have always been dreaming about creating artificial beings that embody idealized visions of men and women suited for being perfect companions and tempting us to fall in love with them. Morally desirable or acceptable to build robots designed Phenomenology looks into how things and people – the to elicit attraction and romantic emotions in humans, as beloved, in our case, – are lived through in our mind (and well as the question of whether it is morally good for hu- body) as the contents of experience, and what is specific mans to fall in love with such creatures. I will only touch upon some of the min- logical method is designed to look into how things and imal requirements that such robots must exhibit in order other persons are subjectively experienced That makes it to elicit romantic reactions from humans. We cannot determine here if an anthropomorphic robot objectively speaking has an alterity
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