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International Journal of Social Robotics
Published in: International Journal of Social Robotics 4/2021

07-05-2019

Religion and Robots: Towards the Synthesis of Two Extremes

Authors: Gabriele Trovato, Loys De Saint Chamas, Masao Nishimura, Renato Paredes, Cesar Lucho, Alexander Huerta-Mercado, Francisco Cuellar

Published in: International Journal of Social Robotics | Issue 4/2021

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Abstract

Humanity has been dreaming of robots since the ancient times. Historically, robots — originally called automata — have been the products of technology and faith. The relationship between robots and religion has disappeared in the last two centuries, as science and religion parted ways, and have typically been seen in opposition. Nowadays, as robots and AI are going to spread in human society, new possibilities and new ethical challenges are on the horizon. In this paper, we summarise the state of the art in robotics and religion, and propose a taxonomy for robot morphology that takes into account the factor of religion. The taxonomy encompasses the novel concept of ‘theomorphic robots’, referred to robots that carry the shape of something divine.
previous article Editorial Introduction to Special Issue on Religion in Robotics
next article Ethics, Human Rights, the Intelligent Robot, and its Subsystem for Moral Beliefs

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Metadata
Title
Religion and Robots: Towards the Synthesis of Two Extremes
Authors
Gabriele Trovato
Loys De Saint Chamas
Masao Nishimura
Renato Paredes
Cesar Lucho
Alexander Huerta-Mercado
Francisco Cuellar
Publication date
07-05-2019
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
International Journal of Social Robotics / Issue 4/2021
Print ISSN: 1875-4791
Electronic ISSN: 1875-4805
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-019-00553-8

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