More-than-human Perspective on the Robomorphism Paradigm

Abstract

This paper proposes a posthuman perspective of the robomorphism theory. We propose to define robomorphism as the attribution of robotlike traits to non-robotic entities. Such a definition embraces the centrality of robots in two aspects. First, by assuming the target of robomorphism is not necessarily a human. Second, by considering the notion of robomorphic traits as inherently crucial to establish the robomorphism paradigm. Embracing robots as relevant non-humans in the robomorphism paradigm constitutes the more-than-human perspective of the proposed approach. The contributions of this paper are threefold. First, we propose the robomorphism paradigm by defining it and its inherent concepts, such as robomorphisation and robomorphic. Second, we discuss the broader implications of the robomorphism theory to the research community of Human-Robot Interaction, raising important new challenges. Third, we created a preliminary inventory of robomorphic traits, which were collected from a speculative workshop activity in order to start answering one of the proposed open challenges.