About the AI and Theology: What Can Robots Teach Us About Love? course
‘Lovotics’ is the science of designing desirable robots that can engender and encourage feelings of love. But what are those feelings? And what are the pushbacks people tend to voice about the notion of experiencing loving relationships with robots? By exploring different types of relationships with robots – from sexbots to carebots and from humanlike androids to devices that mimic our pets – we’ll reflect on our attitudes to love and to robots alike.
The sessions will focus on the conflicts between our desires and our responsibilities, and participants will gain a deeper understanding of the issues presented by lovotics and social robots more broadly. Rather than sensationalising these issues but without presenting a particular agenda or viewpoint, the emphasis will be on nuancing expectations and reflections and considering a range of viewpoints and arguments, including theological ones.
About the Tutor
Dr Scott Midson is Lecturer in Liberal Arts in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at the University of Manchester and a member of the Lincoln Theological Institute.
Previously he was Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute, where he was lead researcher on the ‘Living with and Loving Machines’ project (2016-19). This project brought together questions about how we understand humans and technologies in their relationships, and sought to encourage an alternative way of reflecting on these using the theological notion of ‘love’.
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