"We notice that something is shifting": Project at Bauhaus University Weimar is dedicated to the question of animate machines

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With the kind permission of the Thüringen Allgemeine, we provide you with this article, which has been translated into English.

"We notice that something is shifting. What happens to people when machines are suddenly endowed with abilities that are considered distinctly human?

Marvin Reinhart

Weimar. Technologies such as Siri, Alexa, or ChatGPT give the impression that we are increasingly dealing with living, breathing machines. At the same time, we must realize that abilities that were previously understood as human are now also being ascribed to machines. The media theorist Henning Schmidgen, the philosopher Mathias Schönher and the artist Jenny Brockmann are currently investigating this question in the project Animism/Maschinism at the Bauhaus University.

What prompted you to initiate such a project right now?
Henning Schmidgen: The pressure to keep up with the times is enormous. In the last few months we have been confronted with technologies in which their possible or supposed liveliness poses a problem. The most prominent example is ChatGPT. But also the use of voice assistants in everyday life, such as Siri and Alexa.

When I communicate with ChatGPT, I know that it is ultimately a machine. Is it also about attribution?
Henning Schmidgen: We start from the connection between man and machine. We want to know how abilities and powers of action are redistributed in this human-machine system, and where the specifically human is still to be found when we are confronted with systems that can write, for example. I see no obstacle to granting such systems the ability to write. Then the question arises, how empathically we connect our understanding of the human being with such abilities? We notice that something is shifting.
Mathias Schönher: This is also urgently necessary from a philosophical point of view. After we have occupied ourselves for thousands of years with ethical questions, at which the human being was considered more or less isolated, a large rethinking must take place. Today we are so closely connected with computers that it is no longer sufficient to make ethical considerations that refer almost exclusively to human agency. For example, with regard to electronic weapons systems such as armed drones. We simply cannot get any further with concepts that are tailored solely to human beings. There are a lot of problems in this area.

Does one embed humanity in a materialistic worldview? For a long time, it was considered the crown of creation.
Henning Schmidgen: The understanding of humanity as the crown of creation has been significantly relativized, not least by modern science. To comprehend these shifts in human identity, we essentially need an entirely new philosophy of nature.

Does such a new reality, such a shift, also hold dangers?
Henning Schmidgen: Of course there is a threat, which is being expressed in many places. Elon Musk has said that a KI is a real threat to humanity. I believe that with the development of so-called KI, we are confronted with a reality that we need to understand much better. Insofar we have a very enlightening impetus in our project. We believe that an understanding of how such machines work is essential if we are to be able to better understand the situation of human beings in the world today. We need more information about the digital age to be able to position ourselves better and also to be able to better assess possible threat and abuse scenarios.
Mathias Schönher: From a philosophical point of view, this is also urgently necessary. After we have occupied ourselves for thousands of years with ethical questions, in which the human being was considered more or less in isolation, a major rethinking must take place. Today we are so closely connected with computers that it is no longer sufficient to make ethical considerations that refer almost exclusively to human agency. For example, with regard to electronic weapons systems such as armed drones. We simply cannot get any further with concepts that are tailored solely to human beings. There are a lot of problems in this area.

In the past, the relationship between technology and man was different. Machines were used to subjugate nature. That has changed.
Henning Schmidgen: The relationship between technology and man has intensified greatly with the advent of the computer. But the question of the liveliness or even sentience of machines was already raised in connection with industrialization. As early as the 19th century, there was a culture and society that marveled at the autonomy of machines in factories and felt threatened by it.

Already in Romanticism, ETA Hoffmann reflected on human automatons.
Henning Schmidgen: Romanticism was deeply impressed by the liveliness of the artificial. But ultimately this is a question that goes back to antiquity. Aristotle reflects on the liveliness of beds because they are made of wood, which is also ultimately made of trees. Perhaps the way we think about such questions today, about Modernism and Romanticism, is once again drawing on ways of thinking that were familiar to the ancient world.The boundary between the living and the nonliving was set differently there. And we also seem to be moving towards a state that has nothing to do with a sharp separation.
Mathias Schönher: But the machines that were developed in the 20th century are really new, information-processing machines.

That all sounds very theoretical. With Jenny Brockmann, you have an artist on board. What is her role?
Jenny Brockmann: I have something very concrete in mind. There is a sculpture by me, an art apparatus. Seat#12 was made in 2016 and is a circle of seats. The seats are connected in the middle, and you are also in a balancing act with the others. Every movement of each person is felt by the others. A few weeks ago I made two of these seats more complex - and at the same time more mobile, so that they can be set up in different places. The seats are now individual, and there is a need for a monitor for eye contact with the other persons, as well as a microphone and loudspeaker for communication.

What is the goal of this installation?
Jenny Brockmann: The goal is to medially change the structure so that it appeals to the vestibular organ in different places. The sculpture establishes a connection between individuals, creating a situation of equilibrium in which everyone must pay attention to the other individuals, who stabilize but also unsettle them. It thus becomes the basis of an experiment in which a collective, critical equilibrium is tested through felt communication and embodied knowledge. It should thus open up and make observable the space for the formation of a new subjectivity. The Sculpture-Machine joins up with feelings and perceptions as well as memory, language and thinking to form this new subjectivity.