Last week, a Christian college in Matthews, North Carolina unveiled something unprecedented: a humanoid robot whose sole mission is to explore the ethical and theological ramifications of robotics.
Expectations, however, should be managed. The bot in question isn’t a clattering machine assembled in the bowels of Southern Evangelical Seminary & Bible College (SES), pre-loaded with algorithms that compel it to sin or repent on command. It’s a NAO robot, which anyone can purchase (SES reportedly paid $9300). NAOs are already being used in research ranging from bipedal mobility to autism. The two-foot-tall humanoid can walk, dance, speak, and, in this case, act as a kind of conversation starter, inspiring students to contemplate the more advanced models to come.
“When the time comes for including or incorporating humanoid robots into society, the prospect of a knee-jerk kind of reaction from the religious community is fairly likely, unless there’s some dialogue that starts happening, and we start examining the issue more closely,” says Kevin Staley, an associate professor of theology at SES. Staley pushed for the purchase of the bot, and plans to use it for courses at the college, as well as in presentations around the country. The specific reaction Staley is worried about is a more extreme version of the standard, secular creep factor associated with many robots.
“From a religious perspective, it could be more along the lines of seeing human beings as made in God’s image,” says Staley. “And now that we’re relating to a humanoid robot, possibly perceiving it as evil, because of its attempt to mimic something that ought not to be mimicked.”
Welcome to the strange intersection of theology and robotics, where discussions about the appropriate deployment of human-like machines cruise past life and death stakes, and into questions of immortal souls and divine will. It’s a topic that’s been addressed sporadically for years, though by an extremely small group of philosophers, theologians and artificial intelligence researchers. Anne Foerst, a theologian and computer scientist at St. Bonaventure University in New York, has devoted the majority of her career on this topic, and argued that social robots already have souls, by virtue of being invited into the greater human community. Others have used science fiction to examine the God-like menace and allure of intelligent machines. What sets SES apart is its robot. Even if the college’s NAO ultimately functions as a glorified prop, it’s the first attempt to add hardware to the burgeoning discussion.
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