Episode #10 – David Gunkel on Robots and Cyborgs

Posted on by John Danaher

david_gunkelThis is the tenth episode in the Algocracy and Transhumanism Podcast. In this episode I talk to David Gunkel. David is a professor of communication studies at Northern Illinois University. He specialises in the philosophy and ethics of technology. He is the author of several books, including Hacking Cyberspace, The Machine Question and Of Remixology. I talk to David about two main topics: (i) robot rights and responsibilities and (ii) the cyborgification of society.

You can download the episode at this link. You can listen below. You can also subscribe on Stitcher and iTunes (via RSS – click on ‘add to iTunes’).

Show Notes

  • 0:00 – 1:50 – Introduction
  • 1:50 – 4:23 – Robots in the News
  • 4:23 – 10:46 – How to think about robots: agency vs patiency
  • 1:46- 13:20 – The problem of distributed agency
  • 13:20 – 18:00 – Robots as tools, machines and agents
  • 18:00 – 24:25 – The spectrum of robot autonomy
  • 24:25 – 28:04 – Machine learning: is it different this time?
  • 28:04 – 39:40 – Should robots have rights and responsibilities?
  • 39:40 – 43:55 – New moral patients and emotional manipulation
  • 43:55 – 57:14 – Understanding the three types of cyborg
  • 57:14 – 1:02:26 – The Borg and the Hivemind Society
  • 1:02:26 – End – Cyborgification as a threat to Enlightenment values

 

 

Relevant Links

Leave a comment