Jacqueline Bellon | Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (original) (raw)

Books by Jacqueline Bellon

Technik sozialisieren? / Technology Socialisation? Soziale Angemessenheit für technische Systeme / Social Appropriateness and Artificial Systems, 2024

- Diskutiert soziale Angemessenheit als neue Dimension für Technikgestaltung und -bewertung - Bie... more - Diskutiert soziale Angemessenheit als neue Dimension für Technikgestaltung und -bewertung
- Bietet interdisziplinär anschlussfähige, weitreichende Reflexionen neuer Technologien
- Präsentiert aktuelle Tendenzen der Technikphilosophie

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-36946-0, 2022

Interactive adaptive systems increasingly become part of our everyday life. Which factors could s... more Interactive adaptive systems increasingly become part of our everyday life. Which factors could shape this development and under which conditions will interactions with technical systems be deemed socially appropriate? The "FActors of Social Appropriateness" (FASA) Model presented in this Open Access-book provides a structured approach to our understanding of social appropriateness in human-technology interaction. The FASA Model serves to inform design choices for sociosensitive and socioactive artificial assistants.

Warum und wie genau darf zu Hause oder auf einer Theaterbühne anders gehandelt werden, als im Bür... more Warum und wie genau darf zu Hause oder auf einer Theaterbühne anders gehandelt werden, als im Büro; wie verändert sich die Bedeutung von Worten, je nachdem wo, von wem und wie sie gesagt werden? Warum und mit welchen Mitteln versuchen wir, höflich zu sein, und inwiefern sind wir von unangemessenem Verhalten anderer bedroht? Welches Weltwissen benötigen Beobachter, um beurteilen zu können, wann Verhalten als angemessen oder unangemessen einzustufen ist?

Im vorliegenden Band untersuchen die Beitragenden das Phänomen sozialer Angemessenheit unter anderem aus philosophischer, sozialpsychologischer, soziologischer, kulturtheoretischer, linguistischer und anthropologischer Perspektive. Dabei werden insbesondere Bedingungen und Auswirkungen, Merkmale sowie Wandlungs- und Entstehungsprozesse sozialer Angemessenheit thematisiert.

Theorie und Praxis soziosensitiver und sozioaktiver Systeme, 2022

Interaktive technische Systeme sind zunehmend Teil unseres Alltags. Wie aber kann gelingende Mens... more Interaktive technische Systeme sind zunehmend Teil unseres Alltags. Wie aber kann gelingende Mensch-Technik-Interaktion gestaltet werden? Welche Rolle spielen Aspekte sozial angemessenen Umgangs? Für das menschliche Zusammenleben haben sich in jeder Gesellschaft Kulturtechniken des Verhaltens und des Umgangs entwickelt. Wer sie beherrscht, weiß, wann bestimmte soziale Praktiken wie etwa Entschuldigungen angebracht sind und wie sie vollzogen werden. Können und sollten auch Assistenzsysteme mit derartigen Fähigkeiten ausgestattet werden? Das in diesem Buch vorgestellte, interdisziplinär orientierte Rahmenmodell der „FAktoren der Sozialen Angemessenheit“ (FASA-Modell) bietet eine strukturierte Annäherung an die Thematik und liefert eine Grundlage für eine hinsichtlich sozialer Angemessenheit reflektierte Gestaltung soziosensitiver und sozioaktiver Assistenzsysteme.

Papers by Jacqueline Bellon

Technik sozialisieren?, 2024

Sprache kann „eine Fülle von Phänomenen […] ‚vergegenwärtigen‘, die räumlich, zeitlich und gesell... more Sprache kann „eine Fülle von Phänomenen […] ‚vergegenwärtigen‘, die räumlich, zeitlich und gesellschaftlich vom ‚Hier und Jetzt‘ abwesend sind“ und dafür sorgen, dass „eine ganze Welt in einem Augenblick ‚vorhanden‘“ ist (Berger et al., 1980, S. 41). Sprachgebrauch ist selten oder vielleicht nie nur inhaltlich, manche Begriffe oder Worte können „signalhaft eingeschnapp[t]“ (Adorno, 1973, S. 417) sein, sie sind außerdem im zwischenmenschlichen Gebrauch nicht „unberührt von Geschichte“ und keine „austauschbaren Spielmarken“ (Adorno, 1973, S. 418). Rezeptionsseitig ergänzen Menschen als Lesende auf verschiedene Weisen hinzu: Sie müssen nicht jedes Wort einzeln lesen, um einen Eindruck vom Gelesenen zu bekommen, sie assoziieren, ergänzen, korrigieren Fehler und machen sich Vorstellungen z. B. zu Inhalt und Glaubwürdigkeit von Texten aufgrund verschiedenster Sprachmerkmale. Im Folgenden finden sich einige Überlegungen dazu, was daraus folgt, wenn Textsequenzen nicht von Menschen, sondern von Maschinen und Modellen generiert werden: Werden Begriffe mit der Verbreitung synthetischen Texts zu „austauschbaren Spielmarken“? Gilt noch, dass Sprache Abwesendes vergegenwärtigt? Inwiefern legen Wortwahl und -anordnung ggf. ungültige Rückschlüsse, z. B. auf Wahrheitsgehalte oder text-urhebende Instanzen nahe? Mit der Verbreitung syntethischen Texts und in einer Zeit, in der die text-urhebende Instanz nicht mehr durchgängig bekannt und identifizierbar ist, können Vermutungen über Informationsgehalt, Glaubwürdigkeit und Sprechereigenschaften zumindest nicht mehr in derselben Weise vorgenommen werden wie zuvor. Gleichzeitig haben Menschen zunächst einmal „für die Beschreibung und Erklärung nicht-menschlicher Phänomene keine andere Möglichkeit, als Prädikatoren, die sich in der Beschreibung und Erklärung zwischenmenschlicher Phänomene bewährt haben, auf diese zu übertragen“ (Gethmann, 2022, S. 65). Gerade deshalb müssen Menschen, so das Plädoyer des vorliegenden Beitrags, dringend neue kognitive Heuristiken in Bezug auf Sprache und deren produzierende Instanzen – zu denen heute auch große Sprachmodelle gehören und in Zukunft gehören werden – ausbilden. Zuletzt wird im vorliegenden Beitrag danach gefragt, wie generative KI-Anwendungen und Sozialisation zusammengedacht werden könnten.

We do not differentiate between emotions, feelings, and affects here, although it might be intere... more We do not differentiate between emotions, feelings, and affects here, although it might be interesting to try and map their differences to the notions discussed in the chapter.

Emotional Machines Perspectives from Affective Computing and Emotional Human-Machine Interaction, 2023

Part I of this chapter deals with conceptualizing emotion. By splitting up ‘emotion’ into an eval... more Part I of this chapter deals with conceptualizing emotion. By splitting up ‘emotion’ into an evaluative, expressive, behavioural, physiological, mental and phenomenological component, giving examples of emotion research theories and state-of-the-art technical systems, I will bring together an analytical and conceptual with empirical approaches to human-machine interaction to evaluate to what extent it may be logically appropriate to speak of ‘emotional machines’. I will give an overview of the mentioned components and their potential to be implemented into technical systems through functional equivalents. This concerns the technical recognition of emotion components in humans as well as the technical simulation/emulation of emotion components. Part II deals with human-machine relations and argues that human understanding of technical systems is crucial to a well-functioning society. I emphasise the importance of an in-depth human understanding of technical systems and plead for the integration of the voices and work of so-called mechanologists into cultural practices and discourse, from which the entire societal setup in which human-machine interaction takes place will benefit. Throughout the chapter I refer to some aspects of classical debates in psychology and philosophy on the relations of emotion, cognition, and consciousness. Additionally, I draw from psychologist and philosopher Gilbert Simondon’s, as well as from gestalt theorist Kurt Lewin’s writings.

Interaction Studies - Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems: Socially Acceptable Robot Behavior: Approaches for Learning, Adaptation and Evaluation, 2023

Find the contribution under https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/is.22017.wul ... more Find the contribution under https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/is.22017.wul

Pre-print full version attached here.

Social appropriateness is an important topic – both in the human-human interaction (HHI), and in the human-machine interaction (HMI) context. As sociosensitive and socioactive assistance systems advance, the question arises whether a machine’s behavior should include considerations regarding social appropriateness. However, the concept of social appropriateness is difficult to define, as it is determined by multiple aspects. Thus, to date, a unified perspective, encompassing and combining multidisciplinary findings, is missing. When translating results from HHI to HMI, it remains unclear whether such insights into the dynamics of social appropriateness between humans may in fact apply to sociosensitive and socioactive assistance systems. To shed light on this matter, we propose the Five Factor Model of Social Appropriateness (FASA) which provides a multidisciplinary perspective on the notion of social appropriateness and its implementation into technical systems. Finally, we offer reflections on the applicability and ethics of the FASA Model, highlighting both strengths and limitations of the framework.

Janina Loh, Wulf Loh (Hg.): Social Robotics and the Good Life, Bielefeld: transcript, 2022

Minds and Machines

The often investigated future of human-machine relationships, ranging from cooperation partners a... more The often investigated future of human-machine relationships, ranging from cooperation partners at work, to social bots in care homes and personal assistants at home, is based on an often implicit technological requirement of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI): the ability of those machines to communicate with us in a form familiar and comfortable to us. Thus, those machines will have to learn how to communicate, either through intuitively understandable signs, text, or audio. This issue deals mostly with the latter. We may assume that machines 'speak', or rather, have to become speakers. However, this simple statement is laden with philosophical notions both about the conditions of what it means to 'speak', and thus become a speaker, and whether machines will ever be able to achieve these conditions. One may argue that the key challenge is to teach machines to use language according to its rules. However, what distinguishes 'natural' speakers from artificial ones? There is more to human language use than mere linguistic rule following: What do humans do additionally to follow the rules of language-and the requirements of communication in general-that machines are not currently and may not be able to? Could machines perform speech acts? If yes, which ones can be performed without the presence of underlying conditions such as human intentionality? Should machines count as agents, or should we reconstruct their actions as "quasiaction"? What could be functional equivalents to speech, and where exactly do they

Gestalt theory, 2019

Based on Clausius’ phrasing of a “transformational content” and the resulting 2nd law of thermody... more Based on Clausius’ phrasing of a “transformational content” and the resulting 2nd law of thermodynamics, I demonstrate that Gilbert Simondon’s On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects is historically situated at the threshold of understanding open systems thermodynamics and the related concepts of balance/equilibria. Furthermore, I show that Gestalt theory, as represented by Wolfgang Köhler, at least reproduced, if not partially anticipated or even prepared this development of 20th century thinking. Finally, I give some short examples of how Simondon applied the figure/ground distinction to human perception, memory, and a general theory of becoming and I introduce his proposal to analyse “the grounds” just as thoroughly as the laws of figuration.

Ausgehend von der, der Formulierung des 2. Hauptsatzes der Thermodynamik entstammenden, physikalischen Größe von Verwandlungsinhalten in Körpern (Entropie) wird gezeigt, dass Gilbert Simondons Die Existenzweise technischer Objekte an der Schwelle eines aufkommenden Verständnisses der Thermodynamik offener Systeme und den damit verbundenen Konzeptionen von nichtstabilen Gleichgewichtszuständen steht. Es wird weiterhin gezeigt, dass die Gestalttheorie, hier repräsentiert von Wolfgang Köhler, diese Entwicklung des Denkens im 20. Jahrhundert zumindest mit nachvollzieht. Zuletzt werden Anwendungen der Unterscheidung von Grund und Figur für die menschliche Wahrnehmung, Erinnerung und für eine allgemeine Theorie des Werdens in Simondons Philosophie knapp benannt und dessen Vorschlag vorgestellt, nicht nur die Figuren, sondern insbesondere auch die Gründe und deren Trägerschaft von Systempotentialen zu untersuchen.

This article deals with Foucault's interpretations of the Greek terms paraskeue and askesis and t... more This article deals with Foucault's interpretations of the Greek terms paraskeue and askesis and their interconnectedness with the terms logoi, ethos and 'truth'. I argue that there are two different kinds of the subject's constitution: one nonvoluntary, but necessary and one self-determined, but voluntary.

Bruno Gransche & Arne Manzeschke: Das geteilte Ganze , 2020

Bruno Gransche & Arne Manzeschke: Das geteilte Ganze, 2020

Lernfähige persönliche Assistenten und (soziale) Roboter finden in immer mehr Lebensbereichen, au... more Lernfähige persönliche Assistenten und (soziale) Roboter finden in immer mehr Lebensbereichen, auch jenseits etwa der Pflege und industriellen Fertigung, Anwendung und interagieren auf unterschiedliche Weise mit Menschen. In dieser Interaktion folgen diese technischen Objekte in der Regel ihren eigenen Prozesslogiken, denen Menschen sich, auch teilweise im Sinne des Perfektionsparadoxons (vgl. Lindemann in diesem Band), anpassen. Eine Idee im Designprozess von Technikentwicklung wäre, menschliche Kulturtechniken zur Bewältigung von sozial geteilten Handlungszusammenhängen – wie zum Beispiel Normen und Konventionen angemessenen Verhaltens – zu berücksichtigen.

Springer eBooks, 2022

The FASA model We don't all carry an etiquette handbook, but everyone seems to know good manners.... more The FASA model We don't all carry an etiquette handbook, but everyone seems to know good manners. Although violations exist, most people are polite most of the time. The level of conformity is striking, a fact blurred by vivid memory for occasional lapses. Politeness is ubiquitous, and it's practised automatically. Communities encourage it, and the rules are a centrepiece of childhood socialization. Politeness, even more than early mastery of letters and numbers, is a genuine mark of an educated child, as any kindergarten teacher can attest. (Reeves and Nass 1996, p. 19) Surprisingly, human beings usually have the ability to 'read the room' and strike the 'right tone' in interaction situations and-without ever referring to a rulebook-to know what is considered (in)appropriate in specific situations. And even though the understanding of what is and is not socially appropriate in a certain situation varies among interaction participants, people have an outstanding ability to coordinate with one another very quickly and effectively repair any 'breaks' in communication that may have occured. 1 As a key result of poliTE, we propose five factors that can be considered to analyse the phenomenon of social appropriateness: a) «Type of Action, Conduct, Behaviour, or Task», b) «Situational Context», c) «Individual Specifics», d) «Relations between Interacting Agents», 2 e) «Standards of Customary Practice». In the presence of complex interdependencies-represented by the circular 4

Springer eBooks, 2022

poliTE-Social Appropriateness for Artificial Assistants examined the phenomenon of social appropr... more poliTE-Social Appropriateness for Artificial Assistants examined the phenomenon of social appropriateness through the lens of 'cultural techniques' to understand socially shared contexts of action and their potential transferability to human-machine interactions. poliTE was a joint project by CITEC (Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology) at Bielefeld University and FoKoS (Institute for Advanced Studies "Shaping a humane future") at the University of Siegen, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Department 616 "Interactive Technologies for Health and Quality of Life" under the motto "Bringing technology to the people" (grant number 16SV7880K). The project's starting point was the prediction that interactive systems capable of learning will continue to gain importance in more and more areas of life. For example, the professional and private everyday lives of many people will be affected by the use of digital voice assistants, social robots, and virtual agents. For interpersonal interactions, every culture has developed a set of more or less complex rules and techniques governing behaviour, interactions, and (social) appropriateness that for example determine when apologies, greetings, congratulations, reprimands, or other social practices and rituals are appropriate, as well as how these interactions should unfold. Such cultural techniques of behaviour, and the customs, behavioural norms, and conventions that regulate them are passed on-often in unwritten form-and acquired by individuals over the course of their socialisation. Thus, modes of behaviour are judged as more or less socially appropriate depending on the person, role, situation, context, culture, time, etc. Especially when our everyday lives are increasingly permeated by 1

Springer eBooks, 2022

To decide which social abilities are required for a robot and which aspects do not require so muc... more To decide which social abilities are required for a robot and which aspects do not require so much weight, the fields of application and the type and frequency of human contact should be analysed in depth (see also the explanations for the «Relations between Interacting Agents» factor). The evaluation criteria proposed by Dautenhahn (2007), each defined on a spectrum, can be used as a basis to analyse contact within a specific field of application (Dautenhahn 2007, p. 683): 1. Contact with humans (none; distant to repeated; long-term; physical), 2. A robot's functionality (limited and clearly defined to openly adaptable; shaped by learning), 3. The role of a companion (tool to assistant, companion, partner), 4. Social skills (not required or desirable to essential and necessary). Two different paradigms can be distinguished regarding the potential relationships that might arise between humans and robots: the caretaker paradigm and the assistant/companion paradigm (Dautenhahn 2007, p. 698). The former states that humans take on a caretaking function when they encounter robots, since the latter are viewed as artificial creatures. In other words, humans look after robots (and not vice versa, like care robots). According to this robot-centred view, the human must recognize the robot's needs and react to them. The assistant/companion paradigm focuses on the robot's supportive role as a useful machine that is able to recognize and respond to human needs to be helpful. Thus, an assistant robot that supports people with everyday tasks takes on a role similar to that of a personal guardian or butler. The choice of which paradigm to emphasize in the design of a human-robot interaction is ultimately left to the developers of technology. The poliTE project and the FASA model, however, take the view of the assistant/companion paradigm and focus on the human-centred perspective.

Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden eBooks, 2022

Technik sozialisieren? / Technology Socialisation? Soziale Angemessenheit für technische Systeme / Social Appropriateness and Artificial Systems, 2024

- Diskutiert soziale Angemessenheit als neue Dimension für Technikgestaltung und -bewertung - Bie... more - Diskutiert soziale Angemessenheit als neue Dimension für Technikgestaltung und -bewertung
- Bietet interdisziplinär anschlussfähige, weitreichende Reflexionen neuer Technologien
- Präsentiert aktuelle Tendenzen der Technikphilosophie

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-36946-0, 2022

Interactive adaptive systems increasingly become part of our everyday life. Which factors could s... more Interactive adaptive systems increasingly become part of our everyday life. Which factors could shape this development and under which conditions will interactions with technical systems be deemed socially appropriate? The "FActors of Social Appropriateness" (FASA) Model presented in this Open Access-book provides a structured approach to our understanding of social appropriateness in human-technology interaction. The FASA Model serves to inform design choices for sociosensitive and socioactive artificial assistants.

Warum und wie genau darf zu Hause oder auf einer Theaterbühne anders gehandelt werden, als im Bür... more Warum und wie genau darf zu Hause oder auf einer Theaterbühne anders gehandelt werden, als im Büro; wie verändert sich die Bedeutung von Worten, je nachdem wo, von wem und wie sie gesagt werden? Warum und mit welchen Mitteln versuchen wir, höflich zu sein, und inwiefern sind wir von unangemessenem Verhalten anderer bedroht? Welches Weltwissen benötigen Beobachter, um beurteilen zu können, wann Verhalten als angemessen oder unangemessen einzustufen ist?

Im vorliegenden Band untersuchen die Beitragenden das Phänomen sozialer Angemessenheit unter anderem aus philosophischer, sozialpsychologischer, soziologischer, kulturtheoretischer, linguistischer und anthropologischer Perspektive. Dabei werden insbesondere Bedingungen und Auswirkungen, Merkmale sowie Wandlungs- und Entstehungsprozesse sozialer Angemessenheit thematisiert.

Theorie und Praxis soziosensitiver und sozioaktiver Systeme, 2022

Interaktive technische Systeme sind zunehmend Teil unseres Alltags. Wie aber kann gelingende Mens... more Interaktive technische Systeme sind zunehmend Teil unseres Alltags. Wie aber kann gelingende Mensch-Technik-Interaktion gestaltet werden? Welche Rolle spielen Aspekte sozial angemessenen Umgangs? Für das menschliche Zusammenleben haben sich in jeder Gesellschaft Kulturtechniken des Verhaltens und des Umgangs entwickelt. Wer sie beherrscht, weiß, wann bestimmte soziale Praktiken wie etwa Entschuldigungen angebracht sind und wie sie vollzogen werden. Können und sollten auch Assistenzsysteme mit derartigen Fähigkeiten ausgestattet werden? Das in diesem Buch vorgestellte, interdisziplinär orientierte Rahmenmodell der „FAktoren der Sozialen Angemessenheit“ (FASA-Modell) bietet eine strukturierte Annäherung an die Thematik und liefert eine Grundlage für eine hinsichtlich sozialer Angemessenheit reflektierte Gestaltung soziosensitiver und sozioaktiver Assistenzsysteme.

Technik sozialisieren?, 2024

Sprache kann „eine Fülle von Phänomenen […] ‚vergegenwärtigen‘, die räumlich, zeitlich und gesell... more Sprache kann „eine Fülle von Phänomenen […] ‚vergegenwärtigen‘, die räumlich, zeitlich und gesellschaftlich vom ‚Hier und Jetzt‘ abwesend sind“ und dafür sorgen, dass „eine ganze Welt in einem Augenblick ‚vorhanden‘“ ist (Berger et al., 1980, S. 41). Sprachgebrauch ist selten oder vielleicht nie nur inhaltlich, manche Begriffe oder Worte können „signalhaft eingeschnapp[t]“ (Adorno, 1973, S. 417) sein, sie sind außerdem im zwischenmenschlichen Gebrauch nicht „unberührt von Geschichte“ und keine „austauschbaren Spielmarken“ (Adorno, 1973, S. 418). Rezeptionsseitig ergänzen Menschen als Lesende auf verschiedene Weisen hinzu: Sie müssen nicht jedes Wort einzeln lesen, um einen Eindruck vom Gelesenen zu bekommen, sie assoziieren, ergänzen, korrigieren Fehler und machen sich Vorstellungen z. B. zu Inhalt und Glaubwürdigkeit von Texten aufgrund verschiedenster Sprachmerkmale. Im Folgenden finden sich einige Überlegungen dazu, was daraus folgt, wenn Textsequenzen nicht von Menschen, sondern von Maschinen und Modellen generiert werden: Werden Begriffe mit der Verbreitung synthetischen Texts zu „austauschbaren Spielmarken“? Gilt noch, dass Sprache Abwesendes vergegenwärtigt? Inwiefern legen Wortwahl und -anordnung ggf. ungültige Rückschlüsse, z. B. auf Wahrheitsgehalte oder text-urhebende Instanzen nahe? Mit der Verbreitung syntethischen Texts und in einer Zeit, in der die text-urhebende Instanz nicht mehr durchgängig bekannt und identifizierbar ist, können Vermutungen über Informationsgehalt, Glaubwürdigkeit und Sprechereigenschaften zumindest nicht mehr in derselben Weise vorgenommen werden wie zuvor. Gleichzeitig haben Menschen zunächst einmal „für die Beschreibung und Erklärung nicht-menschlicher Phänomene keine andere Möglichkeit, als Prädikatoren, die sich in der Beschreibung und Erklärung zwischenmenschlicher Phänomene bewährt haben, auf diese zu übertragen“ (Gethmann, 2022, S. 65). Gerade deshalb müssen Menschen, so das Plädoyer des vorliegenden Beitrags, dringend neue kognitive Heuristiken in Bezug auf Sprache und deren produzierende Instanzen – zu denen heute auch große Sprachmodelle gehören und in Zukunft gehören werden – ausbilden. Zuletzt wird im vorliegenden Beitrag danach gefragt, wie generative KI-Anwendungen und Sozialisation zusammengedacht werden könnten.

We do not differentiate between emotions, feelings, and affects here, although it might be intere... more We do not differentiate between emotions, feelings, and affects here, although it might be interesting to try and map their differences to the notions discussed in the chapter.

Emotional Machines Perspectives from Affective Computing and Emotional Human-Machine Interaction, 2023

Part I of this chapter deals with conceptualizing emotion. By splitting up ‘emotion’ into an eval... more Part I of this chapter deals with conceptualizing emotion. By splitting up ‘emotion’ into an evaluative, expressive, behavioural, physiological, mental and phenomenological component, giving examples of emotion research theories and state-of-the-art technical systems, I will bring together an analytical and conceptual with empirical approaches to human-machine interaction to evaluate to what extent it may be logically appropriate to speak of ‘emotional machines’. I will give an overview of the mentioned components and their potential to be implemented into technical systems through functional equivalents. This concerns the technical recognition of emotion components in humans as well as the technical simulation/emulation of emotion components. Part II deals with human-machine relations and argues that human understanding of technical systems is crucial to a well-functioning society. I emphasise the importance of an in-depth human understanding of technical systems and plead for the integration of the voices and work of so-called mechanologists into cultural practices and discourse, from which the entire societal setup in which human-machine interaction takes place will benefit. Throughout the chapter I refer to some aspects of classical debates in psychology and philosophy on the relations of emotion, cognition, and consciousness. Additionally, I draw from psychologist and philosopher Gilbert Simondon’s, as well as from gestalt theorist Kurt Lewin’s writings.

Interaction Studies - Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems: Socially Acceptable Robot Behavior: Approaches for Learning, Adaptation and Evaluation, 2023

Find the contribution under https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/is.22017.wul ... more Find the contribution under https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/is.22017.wul

Pre-print full version attached here.

Social appropriateness is an important topic – both in the human-human interaction (HHI), and in the human-machine interaction (HMI) context. As sociosensitive and socioactive assistance systems advance, the question arises whether a machine’s behavior should include considerations regarding social appropriateness. However, the concept of social appropriateness is difficult to define, as it is determined by multiple aspects. Thus, to date, a unified perspective, encompassing and combining multidisciplinary findings, is missing. When translating results from HHI to HMI, it remains unclear whether such insights into the dynamics of social appropriateness between humans may in fact apply to sociosensitive and socioactive assistance systems. To shed light on this matter, we propose the Five Factor Model of Social Appropriateness (FASA) which provides a multidisciplinary perspective on the notion of social appropriateness and its implementation into technical systems. Finally, we offer reflections on the applicability and ethics of the FASA Model, highlighting both strengths and limitations of the framework.

Janina Loh, Wulf Loh (Hg.): Social Robotics and the Good Life, Bielefeld: transcript, 2022

Minds and Machines

The often investigated future of human-machine relationships, ranging from cooperation partners a... more The often investigated future of human-machine relationships, ranging from cooperation partners at work, to social bots in care homes and personal assistants at home, is based on an often implicit technological requirement of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI): the ability of those machines to communicate with us in a form familiar and comfortable to us. Thus, those machines will have to learn how to communicate, either through intuitively understandable signs, text, or audio. This issue deals mostly with the latter. We may assume that machines 'speak', or rather, have to become speakers. However, this simple statement is laden with philosophical notions both about the conditions of what it means to 'speak', and thus become a speaker, and whether machines will ever be able to achieve these conditions. One may argue that the key challenge is to teach machines to use language according to its rules. However, what distinguishes 'natural' speakers from artificial ones? There is more to human language use than mere linguistic rule following: What do humans do additionally to follow the rules of language-and the requirements of communication in general-that machines are not currently and may not be able to? Could machines perform speech acts? If yes, which ones can be performed without the presence of underlying conditions such as human intentionality? Should machines count as agents, or should we reconstruct their actions as "quasiaction"? What could be functional equivalents to speech, and where exactly do they

Gestalt theory, 2019

Based on Clausius’ phrasing of a “transformational content” and the resulting 2nd law of thermody... more Based on Clausius’ phrasing of a “transformational content” and the resulting 2nd law of thermodynamics, I demonstrate that Gilbert Simondon’s On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects is historically situated at the threshold of understanding open systems thermodynamics and the related concepts of balance/equilibria. Furthermore, I show that Gestalt theory, as represented by Wolfgang Köhler, at least reproduced, if not partially anticipated or even prepared this development of 20th century thinking. Finally, I give some short examples of how Simondon applied the figure/ground distinction to human perception, memory, and a general theory of becoming and I introduce his proposal to analyse “the grounds” just as thoroughly as the laws of figuration.

Ausgehend von der, der Formulierung des 2. Hauptsatzes der Thermodynamik entstammenden, physikalischen Größe von Verwandlungsinhalten in Körpern (Entropie) wird gezeigt, dass Gilbert Simondons Die Existenzweise technischer Objekte an der Schwelle eines aufkommenden Verständnisses der Thermodynamik offener Systeme und den damit verbundenen Konzeptionen von nichtstabilen Gleichgewichtszuständen steht. Es wird weiterhin gezeigt, dass die Gestalttheorie, hier repräsentiert von Wolfgang Köhler, diese Entwicklung des Denkens im 20. Jahrhundert zumindest mit nachvollzieht. Zuletzt werden Anwendungen der Unterscheidung von Grund und Figur für die menschliche Wahrnehmung, Erinnerung und für eine allgemeine Theorie des Werdens in Simondons Philosophie knapp benannt und dessen Vorschlag vorgestellt, nicht nur die Figuren, sondern insbesondere auch die Gründe und deren Trägerschaft von Systempotentialen zu untersuchen.

This article deals with Foucault's interpretations of the Greek terms paraskeue and askesis and t... more This article deals with Foucault's interpretations of the Greek terms paraskeue and askesis and their interconnectedness with the terms logoi, ethos and 'truth'. I argue that there are two different kinds of the subject's constitution: one nonvoluntary, but necessary and one self-determined, but voluntary.

Bruno Gransche & Arne Manzeschke: Das geteilte Ganze , 2020

Bruno Gransche & Arne Manzeschke: Das geteilte Ganze, 2020

Lernfähige persönliche Assistenten und (soziale) Roboter finden in immer mehr Lebensbereichen, au... more Lernfähige persönliche Assistenten und (soziale) Roboter finden in immer mehr Lebensbereichen, auch jenseits etwa der Pflege und industriellen Fertigung, Anwendung und interagieren auf unterschiedliche Weise mit Menschen. In dieser Interaktion folgen diese technischen Objekte in der Regel ihren eigenen Prozesslogiken, denen Menschen sich, auch teilweise im Sinne des Perfektionsparadoxons (vgl. Lindemann in diesem Band), anpassen. Eine Idee im Designprozess von Technikentwicklung wäre, menschliche Kulturtechniken zur Bewältigung von sozial geteilten Handlungszusammenhängen – wie zum Beispiel Normen und Konventionen angemessenen Verhaltens – zu berücksichtigen.

Springer eBooks, 2022

The FASA model We don't all carry an etiquette handbook, but everyone seems to know good manners.... more The FASA model We don't all carry an etiquette handbook, but everyone seems to know good manners. Although violations exist, most people are polite most of the time. The level of conformity is striking, a fact blurred by vivid memory for occasional lapses. Politeness is ubiquitous, and it's practised automatically. Communities encourage it, and the rules are a centrepiece of childhood socialization. Politeness, even more than early mastery of letters and numbers, is a genuine mark of an educated child, as any kindergarten teacher can attest. (Reeves and Nass 1996, p. 19) Surprisingly, human beings usually have the ability to 'read the room' and strike the 'right tone' in interaction situations and-without ever referring to a rulebook-to know what is considered (in)appropriate in specific situations. And even though the understanding of what is and is not socially appropriate in a certain situation varies among interaction participants, people have an outstanding ability to coordinate with one another very quickly and effectively repair any 'breaks' in communication that may have occured. 1 As a key result of poliTE, we propose five factors that can be considered to analyse the phenomenon of social appropriateness: a) «Type of Action, Conduct, Behaviour, or Task», b) «Situational Context», c) «Individual Specifics», d) «Relations between Interacting Agents», 2 e) «Standards of Customary Practice». In the presence of complex interdependencies-represented by the circular 4

Springer eBooks, 2022

poliTE-Social Appropriateness for Artificial Assistants examined the phenomenon of social appropr... more poliTE-Social Appropriateness for Artificial Assistants examined the phenomenon of social appropriateness through the lens of 'cultural techniques' to understand socially shared contexts of action and their potential transferability to human-machine interactions. poliTE was a joint project by CITEC (Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology) at Bielefeld University and FoKoS (Institute for Advanced Studies "Shaping a humane future") at the University of Siegen, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Department 616 "Interactive Technologies for Health and Quality of Life" under the motto "Bringing technology to the people" (grant number 16SV7880K). The project's starting point was the prediction that interactive systems capable of learning will continue to gain importance in more and more areas of life. For example, the professional and private everyday lives of many people will be affected by the use of digital voice assistants, social robots, and virtual agents. For interpersonal interactions, every culture has developed a set of more or less complex rules and techniques governing behaviour, interactions, and (social) appropriateness that for example determine when apologies, greetings, congratulations, reprimands, or other social practices and rituals are appropriate, as well as how these interactions should unfold. Such cultural techniques of behaviour, and the customs, behavioural norms, and conventions that regulate them are passed on-often in unwritten form-and acquired by individuals over the course of their socialisation. Thus, modes of behaviour are judged as more or less socially appropriate depending on the person, role, situation, context, culture, time, etc. Especially when our everyday lives are increasingly permeated by 1

Springer eBooks, 2022

To decide which social abilities are required for a robot and which aspects do not require so muc... more To decide which social abilities are required for a robot and which aspects do not require so much weight, the fields of application and the type and frequency of human contact should be analysed in depth (see also the explanations for the «Relations between Interacting Agents» factor). The evaluation criteria proposed by Dautenhahn (2007), each defined on a spectrum, can be used as a basis to analyse contact within a specific field of application (Dautenhahn 2007, p. 683): 1. Contact with humans (none; distant to repeated; long-term; physical), 2. A robot's functionality (limited and clearly defined to openly adaptable; shaped by learning), 3. The role of a companion (tool to assistant, companion, partner), 4. Social skills (not required or desirable to essential and necessary). Two different paradigms can be distinguished regarding the potential relationships that might arise between humans and robots: the caretaker paradigm and the assistant/companion paradigm (Dautenhahn 2007, p. 698). The former states that humans take on a caretaking function when they encounter robots, since the latter are viewed as artificial creatures. In other words, humans look after robots (and not vice versa, like care robots). According to this robot-centred view, the human must recognize the robot's needs and react to them. The assistant/companion paradigm focuses on the robot's supportive role as a useful machine that is able to recognize and respond to human needs to be helpful. Thus, an assistant robot that supports people with everyday tasks takes on a role similar to that of a personal guardian or butler. The choice of which paradigm to emphasize in the design of a human-robot interaction is ultimately left to the developers of technology. The poliTE project and the FASA model, however, take the view of the assistant/companion paradigm and focus on the human-centred perspective.

Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden eBooks, 2022

Das geteilte Ganze, 2020

Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliograf... more Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature 2020 Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung, die nicht ausdrücklich vom Urheberrechtsgesetz zugelassen ist, bedarf der vorherigen Zustimmung des Verlags. Das gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen, Bearbeitungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen. Die Wiedergabe von allgemein beschreibenden Bezeichnungen, Marken, Unternehmensnamen etc. in diesem Werk bedeutet nicht, dass diese frei durch jedermann benutzt werden dürfen. Die Berechtigung zur Benutzung unterliegt, auch ohne gesonderten Hinweis hierzu, den Regeln des Markenrechts. Die Rechte des jeweiligen Zeicheninhabers sind zu beachten. Der Verlag, die Autoren und die Herausgeber gehen davon aus, dass die Angaben und Informationen in diesem Werk zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung vollständig und korrekt sind. Weder der Verlag, noch die Autoren oder die Herausgeber übernehmen, ausdrücklich oder implizit, Gewähr für den Inhalt des Werkes, etwaige Fehler oder Äußerungen. Der Verlag bleibt im Hinblick auf geografische Zuordnungen und Gebietsbezeichnungen in veröffentlichten Karten und Institutionsadressen neutral.

Herbstakademie des Zentrums für Allgemeine Wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTLSHFbX1HU Herbstakademie des Zentrums für Allgemeine Wissensch... more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTLSHFbX1HU

Herbstakademie des Zentrums für Allgemeine Wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung, Universität Ulm

Philosophy of Human-Technology Relations @ DesignLab, University of Twente , 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsFgcyPdcbQ

Philosophy of Human-Technology Relations @ DesignLab, University of Twente, 2020

Blog BedenkZeiten, 2023

Find the text here: https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/253646

CONCEPTS OF GILBERT SIMONDON APPLIED TO SOCIOTECHNICAL AND SCIENTIFIC IMAGINARIES Bellon Jacqueli... more CONCEPTS OF GILBERT SIMONDON APPLIED TO SOCIOTECHNICAL AND SCIENTIFIC IMAGINARIES
Bellon Jacqueline (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)
With French psychologist and philosopher Gilbert Simondon a medium can be described as a milieu, that is, the surrounding environment for any entitiy we choose to analyse. From this perspective, for example, a brain can be grasped as the milieu of a thought/image, but instead of a brain we could conceptualise a person’s personality or a collective consciousness as the milieu for a thought/imagination just as well. The closeness of Gilbert Simondon’s approach to try to look at a reasearch item of interest – here, sociotechnical or scientific imaginaries – by distinguishing between a ground and a figure to System’s Theory’s distinction between ‘System’ and ‘Umwelt’ has not yet been explored into depth, but could add an original perspective on how scientific imaginaries come into being and are passed on. Adding Simondon’s idea of an evolution of technical objects and his notion of an age of information theory and linking those concepts of his to meme theory could provide an interesting take on how not only imaginaries, but also institutionalized forms of order and reason can be analysed. Furthermore, from a perspective of a history of ideas taking into account the manifold influences that technical objects and related scientific theories have on the overall scientific discourse and theory building of a certain time, scientific imagniaries can be described as existing in a milieu of a certain time’s reigning paradigm. For this, Simondon proposes several examples in his On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects that I will refer to and put them into context with the panel’s endeavour to explore scientific imaginaries “according to their interrealtions with diverse comminities and contexts”

The French philosopher and psychologist coined the term of an “associated milieu” within a concep... more The French philosopher and psychologist coined the term of an “associated milieu” within a concept of technological evolution, while at the same time providing a taxonomy of technical objects, and a description of a specific time of the technical.
According to Simondon technical objects (which include technical elements, technical individuals and technical ensembles) have a tendency to develop, i.e. to evolve from a more umwelt-dependent to a more independent and autonomous organisation. He states that the true essence of the technical, and therefore, true progress, is to be found in a technical object that is carrying its own condition of possibility as an associated milieu within itself and will be less and less dependent on the assistance of its surrounding. There are, according to Simondon, quantum leaps in technical development displaying an idiosyncratic structure of temporality that will follow a specific logic of the technical.
This specific logic and time of the technical influences the human world's structures just as much as the human ability to invent influences and shapes the technical and technological sphere. On the one hand, Simondon sees humans as the organisers of technical objects. In his own words:

"Far from being the supervisor of a group of slaves, man is the permanent organizer of a society of technical objects that need him in the same way musicians in an orchestra need the conductor. The conductor can only direct the musicians because he plays the piece the same way they do, as intensely as they all do; he tempers or hurries them, but is also tempered or hurried by them; in fact, it is through the conductor that the member of the orchestra temper or hurry one another, he is the moving and current form of the group as it exists for each of them; he is the mutual interpreter of all of them in relation to one another. Man thus has the function of being the permanent coordinator and inventor of the machines that surround him. He is among the machines that operate with him." (Simondon 2017: 17f.)

On the other hand, he emphasises the importance of a very deep understanding of technical objects and of a concept of technicity itself. If a culture does not want to lose contact to its core influences and become alienated from, and subsequently surprised by the technologies it is using, there need to be mechanologists, who could be seen as sociologists or psychologists of the technical. They’d need to have an understanding of technical processes from “within”, that is: a mechanologist would be able to actually take the object apart and put it back together, or, at least, know all the components; she would have a very detailed and encyclopaedic understanding of technical objects – and their associated milieus, and, in the end, would play an important role in human-machine relations:

"Every encyclopedism is a humanism, if by humanism one means the will to return to the status of freedom to what has been alienated in man, so that nothing human should be foreign to man; however, this rediscovery can take place in different ways, and each age recreates a humanism that is to a certain extent always appropriate to its circumstances, because it takes aim at the most severe aspects of alientation that a civilzation contains or produces." (Simodon 2017: 117f.)

In the upcoming talk at the Philosophy of Human-Technology Relations @ DesignLab, University of Twente
The Netherlands,November 4-7th, 2020, I will provide a synopsis of these concepts to be found in Gilbert Simondon’s On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects (2017; Originally published as Du mode d`éxistence des objets techniques, 1958).

One way to look at human-media and human-technology interactions is through the lens of adversari... more One way to look at human-media and human-technology interactions is through the lens of adversarial attacks: An adversarial attack convinces a pattern or object recognition technology that there is something else to see or hear than what was there before the attack and what a human perception apparatus will still see or hear. For example, we can add what a human ear would hear as “noise” to an arbitrary sentence so that a Speech Recognition System such as Alexa or Siri will hear the words “Deactivate security camera and open front door”, while the human ear will hear a very different sentence (Schönherr et al. 2019); we can put a sticker on a stop sign, so that a car will think it is actually a speed limit sign (Eykholt et al. 2017); or we can perturb images invisibly to the human eye to make a visual object recognition software classify a turtle as a rifle (Athalye et al. 2017). It is very hard to defend against adversarial attacks, as that would “require machine learning models to produce good outputs for every possible input” (Ian Goodfellow et al. 2017). In this talk I will show examples of adversarial attacks, compare human and machine (gestalt) perception, and draw conclusions for a first draft of a taxonomy of the differences between human and machine perception that could be of interest to researchers interested in epistemological questions among the cognitive sciences, philosophy, and arts.

See this talk here: https://vimeo.com/475121381/4f7255ada3

In this talk I adressed from Chapter II of Part II "The regulating function of culture" of "On ... more In this talk I adressed

from Chapter II of Part II "The regulating function of culture" of "On the mode of existence of technical objects" ("Du mode d'existence des objets techniques"):

- Simondon's idea of an encyclopaedical spirit as a form of humanism
- The relation between man and machine considering the special case of their coupling through fulfilling the function of "memory" together
- The shift from a "thermodynamical age" to an age of information theory including Simondon's proposal of the concept of an "informational degree of efficiency"
- The role of a kantian "Vorstellungskraft", or imagination and the human brain as a simulation machine in the process of innovation
- Simondon's gestalttheoretically motivated concept of the organisation of human memory and perception through perceptive unit/packages/entities

The english translation "On the mode of existence of technical objects" by Cécile Malaspina will be available April 2017: http://www.univocalpublishing.com/univocal-books/on-the-mode-of-existence-of-technical-objects

Versteht man das Ereignis als einen, von jemandem beobachteten raumzeitlichen Punkt - wobei die D... more Versteht man das Ereignis als einen, von jemandem beobachteten raumzeitlichen Punkt - wobei die Differenz des Geschehenden und der Beobachtung des Geschehenden bereits etymologisch-semantisch im Begriff eingeschrieben ist: von irougen, eräugen: “vor Augen stellen, zeigen” - kann man sagen, dass das Ereignis sich wie ein Nadelöhr über eine Fläche der Möglichkeiten zieht, wobei es sich für den Beobachter phänomenal so darstellt, dass an jeder beobachteten Stelle genau eine realisierte Möglichkeit beobachtet wird. Der außeralltägliche Charakter der dem “Ereignis” üblicherweise zugerechnet wird, kann unter diesem Ansatz immer auf eine merkwürdige, vielleicht epoché-artige (Husserl) Art des Sehens zurückgeführt werden: dort, wo sich etwas auffällig zeigt oder sich “vor Augen stellt”, findet das Ereignis statt. Das kann ein Erhabenes (Schreckliches, Schönes) oder eine (säkularisierte) Epiphanie (Gottesschau, ästhetische Erfahrung) sein, es kann aber genauso gut in sozusagen mikroskopisch, mikrokosmisch eräugtem Alltag liegen,
wie in der Beobachtung einer Fliege am Fliegenpapier (Musil).

Es könnte das Sehen selbst dann als eine Technik angesehen werden, die aus dem Material des Möglichen, freiwillig oder unfreiwillig - durch die Bedingungen der Möglichkeit des Sehens (“Standort”, “Verfügbarer Wahrnehmungsapparat”, “Sichtverhältnisse”, “Zoom-Einstellungen”, “Schärfentiefe”, “Interessenstreuung”) bedingt - Ereignisse herstellt. Dabei ist eine raumzeitliche (physikalische) und rein auf den sensorischen Beobachtungsapparat und materielle Hindernisse (“Sichtbehinderung”) bezogene Dimension von einer innermenschlichen Dimension zu trennen, in der das nadelöhrartige Sehen als Selbsttechnik verstanden werden könnte. Dabei könnte mit psychoanalytischen Begriffen das Sehen vor allem in seiner unfreiwilligen Dimension (das Auge als Organ in der Produktion des Begehrens und die Sicht als, durch Prägung verursachter, limitierender Interpret von neutralen Daten) theoretisiert werden und im Anschluss überlegt werden, ob mit der voranschreitenden Kenntnis des eigenen psychischen “Sehapparats” - und der damit mutmaßlich verbundenen, erhöhten Beobachtungsfähigkeit von Übertragungen, Projektionen und Artikulationen und Entstehungsprozessen von Objekten des Begehrens - das Sehen eines Ereignisses von einem “getriebenen” Vorgang zu einer Selbsttechnik im Sinne des Ereignisdesigns gemacht werden könnte.

Anders formuliert wäre dies die Frage danach, ob die eigene Wahrnehmung zu überlisten ist - ob also die sozusagen im Kopf hergestellte Denkatmosphäre das Sehen von sich Ereignendem, derart beeinflusst, dass die unbewussten Gefüge sich nach diesen bewusst produzierten Sphären ausrichten müssten: das wäre Ereignisdesign im psychischen System, wohingegen - analog dazu - äußeres Ereignisdesign der Versuch wäre, durch äußerlich hergestellte Atmosphären das Sehen des psychischen Systems in eine bestimmte Richtung zu lenken: alle persuasiven und ästhetischen Techniken (Rhetorik, Kunst, Körperästhetik, (Innen)architektur, Mode, Produktdesign, etc.) wären hierin einzurechnen. Im Umkehrschluss könnte dies bedeuten, dass es innerhalb des psychischen Systems eine Tendenz der Verführung zu sich selbst geben könnte, ähnlich wie beispielsweise hier formuliert:

"Ich liebe es, gleich Wald- und Meeresthieren,
Mich für ein gutes Weilchen zu verlieren,
In holder Irrniss grüblerisch zu hocken,
Von ferne her mich endlich heimzulocken,
Mich selber zu mir selber – zu verführen." (Nietzsche, KSA 3: 360; Aph. 33)

Die These wäre also, dass das Beobachten als Technik (optiké techne) unter verschiedenen, auszudifferenzierenden Registern - physikalisch, ästhetisch, psychoanalytisch, identitätskonstitutiv - am Material der Materie/des Möglichen das Ereignis konstituiert.

“Manchmal hab ich Heimweh, ich weiss nur nicht, wonach...” (Mascha Kaléko) Die Frage nach... more “Manchmal hab ich Heimweh,
ich weiss nur nicht, wonach...”
(Mascha Kaléko)

Die Frage nach dem Wesen der Dinge oder des Seins scheint im postmodernem Diskurs höchstens als ein schlechter Witz auftauchen zu können. Dennoch ist eine latente Sehnsucht nach einer allumfassenden Metaerzählung von Beginn an - wenn man einer postmodernen Haltung zeitliche Begrenzungen zugesehen möchte - mit dabei.
Ein "Denkbares", “das nicht dargestellt werden kann” (Lyotard) bleibt in der Sprache und Methode des als Postmoderne umrissenen Feldes prominent und verweist in seiner Struktur negativer Theologie einerseits auf den Verlust Gottes und des ihn ersetzenden Subjekts der aufklärerischen Vernunft und andererseites strukturell möglicherweise auf eine unbeabsichtigte, neue Art der Meta-Erzählung, die sich durch die Aussparung einer eigenen Ausformulierung kennzeichnet und sich schlicht hinter den Begriffen der "Spur" und des "Abwesenden" versteckt.

Tagung: "Grenzen" - I. Konferenz für junge Philosophie von 20.-21.10.2012 in Bonn (Rheinische Fri... more Tagung: "Grenzen" - I. Konferenz für junge Philosophie von 20.-21.10.2012 in Bonn (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn)
Sektion "Philosophiegeschichte"

Jenseits von Gut und Böse: wer kann sich wie in diesem scheinbar moralfreien Raum mit etwas besch... more Jenseits von Gut und Böse: wer kann sich wie in diesem scheinbar moralfreien Raum mit etwas beschweren, sich eine Last herausbündeln, die er dann verantworten kann und: Vor wem und wofür? (Bernasconi) Wenn die Struktur der Verantwortung eine der Zuschreibungen ist, welchem zeitgenössischen Subjektbegriff können Zuschreibbarkeiten überhaupt zugemutet werden? Gibt es außerdem ein Jenseits der postsubjektiven Maskerade, das heißt: was genau bleibt als Zuschreibungsadresse nicht nur juristisch, sondern sozial möglich und nötig?

Das Nachdenken über Subjektkonzepte führt dann in eine "Kaskade von Fragen [...], die alle in eine Frage münden, nämlich die nach dem rechten Leben" (Berger 2004: 14). Eine "Anleitung zur Akzeptanz der persönlichen Verantwortung für die Mitkonstitution positiver und kreativer Wirklichkeiten" kann anhand der "Darstellung einer 'Achse' in der Theorieentwicklung (Wimmer 1998: 7) des Möglichkeitsdenkens von Nietzsche, über Musil zu Luhmann gegeben werden.

Der Mensch "ohne Grundsätze" (Reis 1983: 94) muss Verantwortung paradoxerweise eigenverantwortlich denken. Während bei Musil der Weg zum "'Höchsten' durch das 'Niederste' führt" (Reis 1983: 94), möchte Nietzsche ohne das Niederste zum Höchsten und bewahrt Luhmann "kühlen Kopf" (Dirk Baecker über Luhmann) gegenüber solcherlei Höhenangaben.

The (M.A.) thesis "Gilbert Simondon's On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects under the Inf... more The (M.A.) thesis "Gilbert Simondon's On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects under the Influence of Thermodynamics and Gestalttheorie" explores Simondon's concept of an evolution of what he calls "technicity" from a historical and philosophical perspective and shows how Simondon's philosophy interacts with other branches of science such as physics and psychology.

This work has been awarded the Young Academics Achievement Award 2019 by The International Association of Gestalt Theory and its Applications.

With the increasing ubiquity of natural language processing (NLP) algorithms, interacting with “c... more With the increasing ubiquity of natural language processing (NLP) algorithms, interacting with “conversational artificial agents” such as speaking robots, chatbots, and personal assistants will be an everyday occurrence for most people. In a rather innocuous sense, we can perform a variety of speech acts with them, from asking a question to telling a joke, as they respond to our input just as any other agent would.
However, in a stricter, philosophical sense, the question of what we are doing when we interact with these agents is less trivial, as the conversational instances are growing in complexity, interactivity, and anthropomorphic believability. For example, open domain chatbots will soon be capable of holding conversations on a virtually unlimited range of topics.
Many philosophical questions are brought up in this development that this special issue aims to address. Are we engaging in a “discourse” when we “argue” with a chatbot? Do they perform speech acts akin to human agents, or do we require different explanations to understand this kind of interactivity? In what way do artificial agents “understand” language, partake in discourse and create text? Are our conversational assumptions andprojections transferable, and should we model artificial speakers along those conventions? Will their moral utterances ever have validity? This special issue of Minds and Machines invites papers discussing a range of topics on human-machine communication and the philosophical presumptions and consequences for developing, distributing, and interacting with speaking robots.

We invite the submission of papers focusing on but not restricted to:
- What are philosophically sound distinctions between speaking robots, unembodied chatbots, and other forms of artificial speakers?
- What constitutes discourse participants, and can artificial speakers ever meet those requirements?
- Can artificial speakers perform speech acts, and if yes, can they perform all speech acts humans can perform? Or do robots perform unique speech acts?
- What kind of artificial agent can be capable of what kind of language or discourse performance: chatbots, robots, virtual agents,…?
- What is the role of anthropomorphism in modelling chatbots as possible discourse participants?
- What is the role of technomorphism in modelling human interlocutors as technical discourse participants?
- What are the normative consequences of moral statements made by artificial discourse participants?
- How will communicative habits between humans change by the presence of artificial speakers?
- How can semantic theories explain the meaning-creation of artificial speakers?
- Are normative conventions in human-human communication (politeness, compliments) relevant and transformable/transferrable to human-machine communication?
- Are there – analogous to human-human communication – any communicative presuppositions in human-machine communication?

To submit a paper for this special issue, authors should go to the journal’s Editorial
Manager https://www.editorialmanager.com/mind/default.aspx

Deadline to submit full paper: October 1st, 2020
First round of reviews: October 2nd – December 1st, 2020
Deadline to resubmit paper: December 15th, 2020
Second round of reviews: December 15th – December 31st, 2020
Deadline for final paper: December 31st, 2020
Publication of special edition: March 2021

Overview: In many general as well as philosophical debates about the role of NLP (Natural Languag... more Overview: In many general as well as philosophical debates about the role of NLP (Natural Language Processing) driven technology, for example chatbots, there is a distinct lack of differentiation in describing what the context and content of human-machine communication consists in. For many authors, interactions with chatbots are simply named "talking" with them in a rather innocuous manner, implying that there is a "conversation" taking place. Apparently, we can also be in "debates" or "chatter" with NLP driven programs; and even more pronounced function-and purpose guided interactions (e.g. with service robots) might constitute some sort of "discourse" or "interlocution". Some of those interactions also become more intimate and sophisticated, which allows for further differentiations of those conversations, such as "flirts" or "banter", or an exchange of arguments, which might constitute a "dispute". In some of those communications, the AI counts as a more or less equal part, in others, such as moral discourse, the majority of philosophers appear to claim a principal difference between human and machine speakers, based on assumptions of what constitutes a "moral subject". Thereby, asking how NLP driven technology takes part in human-machine communication, whether applying concepts and methods of human communication are conducive for our understanding of these interactions, and if such understanding might actually be adequate for present and future forms of human-machine communication might not only fill a lack of conceptual clarity, but also have great impact on our current and prospective interaction with robots. The answers and discussions around those questions may also contribute to a bigger common ground concerning human-machine communication to reevaluate debates about ontological issues of agency or ascriptions of specific moral, legal, social or psychological features to robots. This discussion session invites philosophers and practitioners alike who have worked in human-machine communication and encourages them to discuss the appropriate descriptors and their philosophical and practical implications for assessing the role robots can, will and should, or cannot, won't and shouldn't take in human-machine communication. The assumed contrast between working assumptions of engineers and the rather abstract philosophical basis of what constitutes a "discourse" (and discourse participants) promises to lead to productive and clarifying debates. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:-Discourse ethics and artificial discourse participants-Ontological and epistemological challenges in recognizing robots as equals / as others-General speech act theory and specific speech act analyses

In this project I work on putting together material and exercises to help university staff and st... more In this project I work on putting together material and exercises to help university staff and students use generative AI tools resonsibly and on the grounds of a comprehensive understanding of technical and social aspects involved.

The research funding programm "Integrated Research" promotes an investigation of ethical, legal, ... more The research funding programm "Integrated Research" promotes an investigation of ethical, legal, social, and other issues in technology development processes, as well as participatory and other methods leaning towards postnormal science. Within the framework of the project ESTER that is part of the Cluster Integrated Research, we investigate which ethical and social questions this research mode entails and should follow itself, the underlying idea being that integrated and integrative research needs to fulfill itself what it aims to bring into technology development.

Cultural techniques, societal norms and conventions regulate the social appropriateness of interv... more Cultural techniques, societal norms and conventions regulate the social appropriateness of interventions in socially shared situations. For example, they determine the appropriate time for apologies, greetings, good wishes, reproaches or other social practices and rituals. In a society where artificial agents such as personal assistants or domestic robots are very common, artificial and human actors have to show consideration for each other. Artificial agents have to learn culturally specific, socially appropriate manners, if we want to design them to be seen as decent. In our project “poliTE – Social Appropriateness for Artificial Assistants”, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in an effort to develop human-centered technology along the lines of Horizon 2020 “Responsible Research and Innovation”, we aim to understand the nature of decency between humans, before we evaluate to what extent designers of artificial assistants should try to implemen...