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Future Shocks

The Battle for the Robot Soul

James K. Wight looks at how cultures define our views of machines.

The word ‘robot’ first appeared in Karel Čapek’s 1921 play, Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti – Rossum’s Universal Robots. The word robota in Slavic languages translates as worker or serf, with the term implying mechanization and technology. Importantly, it is a man-made creation. Using the robot as a point of analysis, I want to assess how religion and philosophy have shaped the cultural perception of robot technology. I will compare Japan and the West, and try to answer the question: Do robots have souls? This question is not about whether or not it is possible to build a sentient machine, but rather about differing cultural understandings and what they mean for our place as a species amongst ever-advancing artificial life.

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