O robotima i ljudima ili: imaju li roboti dušu?
On Robots and Humans: do Robots have a Soul?

Author(s): Ljiljana Gavrilović
Subject(s): Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Srpski genealoški centar
Keywords: science fiction; robots; slaves; Other; human rights; technology
Summary/Abstract: Human-robot relation is analyzed as relation between masters and slaves based on Isaac Asimov’s robot stories and their filming decades after their original release, but also using other narratives from literature and film regarding this topic. In times when human rights are guaranteed to everyone, at least in a declarative manner – to women, non-whites, indigenous peoples, members of sexual, cultural, religious, ethnic and other minorities – relation between human and robot-as-Other reflects permanent need of Western civilization to dominate over the Other. Establishing fictional law order and ethics which logically/ naturally/ willingly submits robots to humans, together with visible human fear of robots seen as autonomous (=uncontrolled) technology, reflects ambiguity towards contemporary technological development and uncertainty in defining self in relation to technology. Popularity of those narratives suggests that problems, questions, and relations modeledwithin them are close or at least recognizable to many people of different backgrounds, and that means that such narratives shape everyday behavior of more and more people in globalized world.

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