L’IMPACTE ÈTIC DE LA ROBÒTICA I DE LES TECNOLOGIES DIGITALS: CARME TORRAS, DE LA MUTACIÓ SENTIMENTAL A ENXARXATS

Abstract

Carme Torras Genís (Barcelona, 1956) is an internationally renowned scientist specializing in assistive robotics and the author of four novels, as well as a series of short stories published in various anthologies, magazines, and collections. This article focuses on her two science fiction novels, La mutació sentimental (2008, winner of the 10th Manuel de Pedrolo Prize and the Ictineu Prize) and Enxarxats (2017, Ictineu Prize). La mutació sentimental has been translated into English as The Vestigial Heart (2018, MIT Press), in an edition accompanied by materials on ethics and robotics, an area of interest to the author. Precisely, I argue here that the concern for ethical changes introduced by robotics and digital communications articulates Carme Torras’ science fiction. While in the distant future of La mutació humans have become dangerously dependent on robots, in Enxarxats, located in the present, people cling to their digital fingerprint beyond death, creating unsustainable obligations for their heirs. Torras’ science fiction reflects, in short, on the dangers of technoscience, of which she herself is an example of ethical commitment as a leading researcher.