Social displays – Die Fabrikation sozialweltlicher Zurechenbarkeit in der Robotik

Abstract

AbstractEven if attributes such as being social, smart, autonomous or intelligent are too ambitious in ontological terms, ‘social’ robots, ‘smart’ agents, ‘autonomous’ vehicles and comparable machines demonstrate a non-trivial mode of automatization. This mode requires the human counterpart to develop a pragmatic understanding of the role, the function and the type of behaviour of such machines. Based on this problem, the article addresses the communicative relevance of design elements such as appearance and behavioural stylisation as well as the use of sign systems in order to create social accountability. The aim is to identify the taxonomies or role figures to which non-trivial machines are socially assigned through their design and which are further differentiated with the development of new designs. This, however, presupposes a fundamental sociological understanding of the structure and function of such displays. The present article and the analytical concept of social displays pursue this intermediated objective.