Social Robotics: Beyond Anthropomorphism Toward Sustainable Coexistence

The future of social robotics does not lie in attempting to perfectly replicate human beings, but rather in building a complementary partnership based on compatibility in difference. This point is emphasized by Luisa Damiano, full professor of Philosophy of Science at IULM University, in an article published in Il Sole 24 Ore.

The total assimilation of robots into the human model fuels wrong expectations and risks encouraging patterns of delegation and replacement. According to the IULM professor, we should instead focus on the concept of “robots with us, not like us”: combining anthropomorphism with perceptual markers of identity — such as olfactory, auditory, or thermal signatures — capable of always making the machine’s artificial origin distinguishable. One example is the ScentDia robot, developed by Luisa Damiano in collaboration with artist Mari Velonaki and perfumer Manos Gerakinis, which uses unique fragrances to make itself recognizable “by smell.”

The real challenge, therefore, concerns the social sustainability of the hybrid ecology we are coexisting in: the fundamental question is not how much robots will resemble us, but what kind of humanity and relationships we want to build with their support.

Read the article here