Assisting Ourselves to Death – A Philosophical Reflection on Lifting a Finger with Advanced Assistive Systems

Abstract

Artificial assistance is about to become a major intermediary between
humans and the world. Siri, Alexa, Cortana etc. are positioned to become tomorrow’s
everyday life djinns that will grant all sorts of wishes at a magical wake word.
They are positioned to unburden us even of the slightest effort of lifting a finger. At
the brink of a possible future assistive society, the relation between human actors
and the world’s resistance has been transformed by interposed artificial assistants.
The comprehensive saturation of all spheres of life with such comfort oriented
assistants calls again for a philosophical reflection on our relation to labour, work,
and action. This article focuses on the nexus of work, competence, and comfort, of
automation, assistance, and autonomy. It analyses the emerging human-assistant-world
relation in the light of a master-slave-thing relation leaning mainly on Hannah
Arendt. The following key questions are addressed: If we proceed on the path to an
assistive society, how would this development alter the behaviour of individuals
within that society, what would be the consequences for the relation between
humans and the world, and how would this rearrange the distribution of competencies
among human actors and artificial agents? In an assistive society, the loss of the
things’ resistance is not regretted as an incapacitating development; on the contrary,
it is celebrated as a gain in comfort. Yet, this means to submit ourselves to a regime
of pseudo-magical effortlessness of a simple-and-easy society no longer capable of
lifting a finger and no longer knowing what for.

ISBN 978-3-319-91029-1

ISBN 978-3-319-91028-4

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 Introduction

2 Vogli Sempre Poter: Will to Competence or Will
to Comfort

2.1 Assisted Action

2.2 Advanced Assistive Systems

2.3 Open Sesame – Submission or Magic

3 Magic Backfires

3.1 Brave New Comfort

3.2 Assistants as Artificial Slaves

4 Comfort and Competencies in an Assistive Society

5 Conclusion

References