Robot jako sługa par exellance w dialektyce pana i niewolnika
Robot as a Bondsman par excellence in dialectics of mastery and servitude

Author(s): Natalia Zakrzewska
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Philosophy
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Hegel; dialectics; struggle for recognition; robots; technology
Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes the relation between the human subject and technology, especially robots, seen through the Hegelian lens. Dialectical cognition requires struggle and suppression of the opposition in dynamic negation. Self-consciousness relates to the Other and transcends corporeal barriers, which shows that reciprocal relation between subjectivity and the Other is necessary for this process. By emphasizing certain aspects of new technologies and the superimposition of Hegel’s frame, several common areas between the practical use of those tools and cornerstone aspects of philosophy are revealed. The significance of the machine in the work context is emphasized by the several examples of modern technology that work without human assistance and assist in a person’s work. Using Hegel's lens, the significance of social context in those scenarios is maintained. Primarily legal and social aspects of the relation with robots are worth analyzing in the Hegelian context because of the insight into the process of work and alienation that this framework offers. By showing Nolen Gertz’s scenarios, I maintained the political and ethical aspects of working with robots and emphasized how recognition emerges in a struggle for recognition. By placing this scenario next to the concept of the Lord-Bondsman dialectics, the significant practical aspect of this process revealed itself at a time when soldiers were participating with robots in prolonged missions. The change in the relation between a person and a robot maintains essential aspects of this relation and shows why it is not merely anthropomorphization of the robot by a human user. The solidarity arises in the context of a struggle between soldiers and robots because of the process of work in which different actors partake. The shared plans and partaking in them made soldiers view robots as a comrade, whereas those machines cover the function of the Other. Moreover, because of the particular form of alienation such professions bring, they exhibit solidarity that others typically lack when interacting with them. This tension reveals a dialectical character of the relation between a person and technology in the modern context. Alienating and dangerous character of work determined the relation of human robots in a way that resembles the struggle for recognition. In the article, I sketch the lack of symmetry in this relation and how alienating and emancipating it is at the same time.

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