HUMANITARIAN ROBOTICS VERSUS SUICIDAL ROBOTICS: HOW TO RE-ENCHANT THE SILVER ECONOMY?

Abstract

Based on many reflections on the part of a very large panel
of stakeholders of all types about the broad question of
converging technosciences, and countless initiatives blooming around the world, this article provides a positive
analysis of the future, outlined by the condensed expression
“humanitarian robotics”. It is based on the uncompromising identification of suicidal futures of which our present
is fertile. Our analysis unfolds in the vast field of ageing
because of the concentration of future issues that it brings
together. This analysis leads to recommendations that aim to support the path toward reasoned use of the extreme
technological means that are now within our reach. This
path – humanitarian robotics – is well identified but is
still very discreet compared to media fevers from big data or
transhumanist issues. It recognizes the intensive use of robots
of all kinds of which we are more and more surrounded,
and it recommend such a use when dealing with caring
for vulnerable people, only in contexts that justify this use,
and with a strong humane and ethical control. Above all,
this path develops a new imaginary of aging, anchored in
the values of humanity: this humanist imaging should be
capable on one side to inspire stakeholders with the force
and intelligence required to avoid the totalitarian trap of
the “technical society”, and, on the other hand, it encourages to the beneficial using of science and technology for
vulnerable people. It keeps in mind the vast problematic of
aging, and the figure of the elderly person more and more
fragile, and who gradually leaves the theatre of the world:
the end of life brings a thousand ways of understanding
that “the simplifying thought has become the barbarism
of science”’ (E. Morin).