Presenters
More Than Information: A Feminist Analysis of Gender in Singularitarianism
This paper will provide an analysis of the functions of gender in the contemporary Singularitarian movement through the lens of the work of key theorist Ray Kurzweil. Kurzweil holds to a neo-Cartesian dualist understanding of personhood as well as a technological progressivist vision of history and a teleological understanding of evolution as movement toward greater complexity culminating in the ultimate intelligence of the universe. The hyper-Cartesianism of Singularitarianism assumes that the sum of the person can be captured as "information" - namely that which is stored as memory in the brain. The body itself is mere "substrate," easily replaceable and in need of replacement, fragile and mortal as it is. Kurzweil likewise reads the history of evolution in an anthropocentric and progressive mode, understanding evolution as increasing movement toward complexity. This teleological reading of evolutionary adaptation is both a misreading of evolution and an ethical hazard. It assumes that greater complexity is of greater value, that anything not as far along in their evolutionary trajectory must be superceded, and that technological progress is both good and inevitable, regardless of the choices we make as a society.
I will analyze his anthropology and cosmic teleology first in terms of the gendered development of humanoid robotics. Following this will be a consideration of the broader implications of Kurzweil's thought for the trajectories taken in robotic research and development. Finally, a feminist analysis of Kurzweil's anthropology and teleology will be used to provide the beginnings of a possible counternarrative that incorporates feminist insights into the nature of persons and the importance of embodiment to both robotic and human self-understanding. I will also provide a reading of evolution rooted in niche ecological adaptation as well as a view of technological development in which trajectories for technologies are not inevitable but are instead the function of social choices and values.
Amy Michelle DeBaets is a PhD student at Emory University in the Graduate Division of Religion working in ethics and robotics. She received her MDiv and ThM degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and has taught medical ethics at Cornell University. She worked previously as the Director of Information Technology at the Nonprofit Risk Management Center in Washington, DC and has written on ethical issues in genetics, life extension, and other technologies.
Debalina Dutta
Media portrayals of robots within the binaries of culture and gender
When Capek (1890 - 1938) introduced the word robot in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots, 1920) to describe fabricated workers, he could not have imagined the development of the field of robotics over time. The field has grown tremendously, with applications that range from personal services to commercial and educational contributions.
With the anthropomorphism associated with the robots, the design and functionality of robots serve as cultural artifacts, rather than mere machines. For example, research on emotive robots is a symbolic representation of our need to develop more naturalized human interaction for robots. Therefore, robotics become extensions of culture and reflect societal expectations (in this case, articulating human emotions). For example, human-computer interaction research indicates there are gender differences in how robots are perceived (Schermerhorn, Sheutz and Crowell, 2008): males are more likely to view robots as masculine and human-like, and females view robots as disembodied machines with limited or no socially desirable features.
Media representations of robots and the field of robotics itself, is an important topic of study because media reflect societal discourses, and also shape public opinion and understanding. In this presentation, I discuss media portrayals of robots as cultural and gendered artifacts and how these binaries are addressed in the media. I posit that the cultural and gendered representations help construct both political and public discourses, which in turn influence robotics design and application. Analysis of content from newspapers, YouTube videos and blogs reveal a repositioning of robotic portrayals from being primarily mechanistic to being emotive. The dominant themes that emerge from the study include robots as monstrous ("Frankenstein"); robots as weaponry; robots as political economy; robots in gendered work roles; and robots as preservers of cultural sanity. The depiction of these tensions in the media has material consequences for design, influencing both present and future robotic design and edification. I discuss these media representation themes as they are informed by culture and gender, and the practical implications for the future of robotics.
Debalina Dutta is a PhD student in the Department of Communication at Purdue University.
Karl F. MacDorman
Gender Differences in the Impact of Presentational Factors in Human Character Animation on Decisions in Ethical Dilemmas
Simulated humans in computer interfaces are increasingly taking on roles that were once reserved for real humans. The presentation of simulated humans is affected by their appearance, motion quality, and interactivity. These presentational factors can influence the decisions of those who interact with them. This is of concern to interface designers and users alike, because these decisions often have moral and ethical consequences. However, the impact of presentational factors on decisions in ethical dilemmas has not been explored. This study is intended as a first effort toward filling this gap. In a between-groups experiment, a female character presented participants with an ethical dilemma. The character’s human photorealism and motion quality were varied to generate four stimulus conditions: real Human versus Computer-Generated character × Fluid versus Jerky movement. The results indicate that the stimulus condition had no significant effect on female participants, while male participants were significantly more likely to rule against the character when her visual appearance was computer generated and her movements were jerky.
Karl F. MacDorman is an associate professor in the School of Informatics, Indiana University. Dr. MacDorman received his Bachelor of Arts degree in computer science from University of California, Berkeley in 1988 and his Ph.D. in machine learning and robotics from Cambridge University in 1996. Most recently MacDorman was an associate professor at Osaka University, Japan (2003-2005). Previously, he was assistant professor in the Department of Systems and Human Science at the same institution (1997-2000), and a supervisor (1991-1997) and research fellow (1997-1998) at Cambridge University. Dr. MacDorman has also worked as a software engineer at Sun Microsystems and as chief technology officer for two venture companies. His research focuses on human-robot interaction and the symbol grounding problem. He has co-organized the workshop Toward Social Mechanisms of Android Science at CogSci 2005 and CogSci/ICCS 2006, the workshop Views of the Uncanny Valley at IEEE Humanoids 2005, and the special session Psychological Benchmarks of Human-Robot Interaction at IEEE Ro-Man 2006 and has edited special issues on these topics for Connection Science and Interaction Studies. He has published extensively in robotics, machine learning, and cognitive science.
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