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Religion and Robots: Towards the Synthesis of Two Extremes

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University, 11-1430, 1-6-1 Nishi-Waseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo-to, 169-8050, Japan

    Gabriele Trovato

  2. Notre Dame de Vie Institute, 205 Chemin de Sainte-Garde, 84210, Saint-Didier, France

    Loys De Saint Chamas

  3. Graduate School of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Waseda University, 1-24-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8644, Japan

    Masao Nishimura

  4. Department of Psychology, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Av. Universitaria 1801, San Miguel, Lima, Peru

    Renato Paredes

  5. Department of Industrial Design, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands

    Cesar Lucho

  6. Anthropological Section, Department of Social Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Av. Universitaria 1801, San Miguel, Lima, Peru

    Alexander Huerta-Mercado

  7. Mechatronic Specialty, Engineering Department, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Av. Universitaria 1801, San Miguel, Lima, Peru

    Francisco Cuellar

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  1. Gabriele Trovato
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Trovato, G., De Saint Chamas, L., Nishimura, M. et al. Religion and Robots: Towards the Synthesis of Two Extremes. Int J of Soc Robotics 13, 539–556 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-019-00553-8

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