COML 4782

The Transhuman Interface

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2014-2015 Catalog.

This seminar will explore the human-machine interface by way of the emergent disciplines of social robotics and transhumanism. We will read 17th and 18th century texts on automata and l'homme machine as well as contemporary robotic theory that focuses on haptics, interactivity, and human-robot sexuality. In 2007, South Korea's Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy announced that it would be drawing up a Robot Ethics Charter, a preemptive mandate that would restructure not only the border between machines and human beings, but territorial borders as well. The colonial nomos of the earth required mandates that deemed colonized people as either human, sub-human, or inhuman depending on territorial objectives. We might ask, what kind of territorial objective does the South Korean Robot Ethics Charter anticipate?

Permission Note Enrollment limited to: 15 students.

Distribution Category (CA-AS)

When Offered Fall.

Breadth Requirement (GHB)

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