Cursed for life?

I really enjoyed reading Emma’s blog on superstitions and robots. We as humans have many superstitions which are structural patterns, beliefs, or practices that result in the avoidance of a certain outcome. However, robots have no need for it. I find it interesting to think about the intersection between robots and superstitions, examining how cultural beliefs intersect with technological advancements. 

If robots were superstitious how would it be created? I like Emma’s example from V2 which used superstitious logic, where “superstitiousness” became almost random. However, as explained in the article by Riegler (2008), humans primarily construct information, incorporating anticipations that must be met. This construction of information involves using external patterns not solely for action but also for justification or restructuring of cognitive frameworks. However, when this construction fails, cognition resorts to pattern processing, which may be futile in dealing with the vast complexity of experience without internal restructuring. 

If we think about the superstitions of robots, we also can find some folklore and mythology of them, such as golems, animated anthropomorphic creatures that were created of clay or mud, to modern depictions of evil monster robots that take over the planet. Would these depictions change over time? 

In my approach, I also want to bring forward previous technological superstitions, but also mundane "superstitions" that we have. For example, by hitting the TV or radio, it would start working. I would want to create emphasis in understanding how superstitions are created in the first place. As a starting point, I want to use the golem above, which is a being brought to life by humans that is granted a soul (Michaelson, 2023). An object, that is granted a "soul" or meaning, after it has been created, but it is something mundane as it is made from clay or mud. For example, I would create an object, that can only be activated using a certain "random" activity. After time, a superstition of the right activity to activate the robot would form.

References 

Riegler, A. (2008). Superstition in the machine. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 57–72). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74262-3_4

Michaelson, J. (2023, January 20). Golem. My Jewish Learning. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/golem/