CFP: Robotpolitics

Robotpolitics is the final follow-up conference that intends to close a threefold system, following the expansion of Cyberpolitics and Technopolitics, resuming to all the dimensions and effects of the technological revolution in our lives, but placing politics at the center of debate and thought.

If in our present there seems to be a diversity of doorways to enter this global shifting paradigm, that we are still trying to map and assess, it has become clear in the last years that we are heading towards a profound systemic and  civilizational transformation, a point of no return. Starting from the premise of a philosophical and genealogical reconstruction of an ancient notion of the slave, at the heart of the problem of mediation-mechanization-automation, there always seems to have been the idea inscribed in fire in the faculty of the imagination that we can demultiply strength or intelligence into external, auxiliary or prosthetic forms, the messianic idea that work under the sun of days can be lighter, that we were ment for something higher. The ideas of repetition and exhaustion are obviously the most fearsome, not only because of their boredom and meaninglessness but also because of the smell of death and uselessness they carry.

The body as a central and multiplied problem, individual, collective, and general, as a system for organizing thought and world vision, is transmuted from flesh to hybrid, from metal to ethereal. Mechanization and social atomization, accelerated by the convergence of multiple parallel variables, seem to indicate to a point of convergence and final focus: the introduction and participation of robots in social, affective, and economic life on a global scale. Between liberalism and the control society, a profound, irreparable, and irrecoverable clash is anticipated from this point zero, which will transform the course of human history forever. On the razor's edge, political affections are divided between a liberating vision, which will finally take human existence to a level of searching for its essence, freed from mundane tasks, and another terrifying one, a cut with nature, unpredictable, a philosophical dream that sounds like a pandora's nightmare in which the human form becomes dispensable, if not obsolete. Inevitably, in the urgency of the little that has already opened up and is foreseeable, some are looking for a third way that seeks to guard with the necessary prudence against a step that could be bigger than its legs.

Another aspect of Robotpolitics concerns the possibility of transhumanism. For a long time now, man has been trying to escape the prisons that the body, as a biological entity, seems to constitute. Robot-men, i.e. a middle ground between pure technology and pure flesh, are already visible on the horizon and can bridge the gap between artificial structures with advanced intelligence and man. Super-soldiers, but also super-academics could emerge from this exchange of naturophobic or technophilic solutions, in a kind of reinvented gnosis.

The digital revolution is undoubtedly a trendsetter within the current digital and political zeitgeist. That is because the latter revolution standardizes and automatizes consumer and citizen behavior. Indeed, the digital revolution shapes and impacts the sociopolitical and socioeconomic trends all over the World. Furthermore, the digital revolution poses several threats to capitalism as a dominant economic doctrine in the West. As a result, there is no agreement among economists on whether Western countries need more (or less) state intervention to preserve the basic rights of their citizens throughout the current digital revolution. Nevertheless, economists agree that more (or less) interventionism in economic policy would bear two possible diametrically opposite effects.

On the one hand, more state intervention would result in more spending on subsidies to sustain the demand of those households whose primary source of income is threatened by labor automation. For instance, the arguments for introducing a basic income policy have dramatically increased over the last few years. Though valuable in their purposes, those arguments often ignore the fact that introducing a basic income policy would have devastating effects on taxation policies. That is because of two primary reasons. Firstly, Western countries are more indebted than they were before. Hence, increasing spending would result in increased public debt. Secondly, and because of the first point, increasing spending would result in increased taxation in countries whose population is shrinking and aging faster than in developing countries.

On the other hand, the increased availability of cheap technology for production has also caused a dramatic rise in the arguments in favor of less state intervention. That is because the availability of cheap technology lowers the marginal cost of production. Accordingly, its large availability involves more opportunities for entrepreneurs, lower transaction costs, more choice of goods and services (i.e., more value-added for Western economies), and more demand for qualified workers. Accordingly—the argument goes—fewer state intervention involves paying out subsidies to requalify workers now and a decrease in overall spending when the entrepreneurs can provide more than the State can provide. In this way, overall taxation would also decrease over time.

These two problems pose two big philosophical questions that have been so far unanswered. Firstly, how will the digital revolution affect and reshape political and economic freedom in the West? Secondly, how will the digital revolution affect and reshape state intervention over the upcoming years? These issues do not concern only the domain of economics. Indeed, both issues concern many other academic disciplines: philosophy, sociology, and political science. Thus, we invite contributors from these fields to participate in this conference because we aim to provide exhaustive answers to these questions.

ROBOTPOLITICS 2024 provides an open academic setting which will certainly open a rich horizon for reflections from diverse fields of study. In order to promote a transdisciplinary dialogue, with contributions from the entire spectrum of academic knowledge, the submission of proposals, on the following topics are particularly encouraged:

1. Robotics

2. Philosophy of Technology and Science

3. Political economy, Macroeconomy

4. Transhumanism

5. Epistemology and History of science

6. Technognose

7. Artificial intelligence

8. Sex, love and robotics

9. Space exploration: new horizons

10. Genetics, biotechnology and care

11. Robot industry

12. Macro and political economy

13. Applied robotphilosophy: wars, governance, society, etc

14. Political theory and economic impact

15. History and myths

16. Authors and particular perspectives

17. Aesthetics, literature, arts, cinema, etc

Abstracts should be sent to  constantinomar@gmail.comwith a small biographical note and may be submitted in English or Portuguese.

Presentations will be 20 minutes in English or Portuguese, plus 10 mim Q&A.

The full and final texts will be published in e-book format in English and Portuguese.

Participation and attendance are free.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Submission: until 1st June 2024

Notification of the decision: 15h June 2024