The third dimension
If we are trying to define the artificial creature, we could use the philosophical and psychological notions of objects and subject. It is interesting to see that humans have the need to subjectify certain objects, and it is not really clear why. This object-subject is the first dimension. The second dimension is whether it is a robot, according to the classical public definition, or not. In this 2-dimensional matrix, we would end up with 4 categories: non-robotic subjects, non-robotic objects, robotic subjects and robotic objects, with the most interesting being the non-robotic and robotic subjects.
My example of a non-robotic subject would be a plant. Plants are, obviously, not robots, but most people really care for and project emotions on plants. However, I would argue that plants here are quite ambiguous to categorize, because they could also be seen as creatures, in which case they would not fit any category in our artificial creature matrix.
My example for a robotic subject would be the Roomba vacuum cleaner. Although we all are very aware of the fact that this is just a vacuum cleaner, most people tend to feel sorry for the Roomba when it gets stuck underneath the couch or keeps on crashing to a wall. This makes it a subject rather than just a robotic object.
However, in my opinion, one important dimension is missing in this definition for an artificial creature: whether it is made to look like a human or not, the humanoid dimension. I think that this dimension plays an important role in the subjectification of an object, since humans are more likely to project emotions onto something that looks like them. With the humanoid dimension added, our categories would be as follows:
- non-robotic, non-humanoid, subjects
- non-robotic, humanoid, subjects
- robotic, non-humanoid, subjects
- robotic, humanoid, subjects
- non-robotic, non-humanoid, objects
- non-robotic, humanoid, objects
- robotic, non-humanoid, objects
- robotic, humanoid, objects
The new matrix can be found below.
* I had a hard time coming up with examples for humanoid things that are not subjectified as I think that humans tend to project emotions rather quickly on humanoid things, no matter if they are robotic or not. Maybe the Uncanny Valley could be a cause for humans to start objectifying humanoid things, because they look so humanlike, it starts to get creepy.