Robots and AI: The Challenge to Interdisciplinary Theology

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply a postfoundationalist approach, especially as expressed by Wentzel van Huyssteen, to the transversal intersection between robots, AI, and theological reasoning.

Abstract: The growing presences of increasingly sophisticated and humanlike robots and artificial intelligence (AI) brings about new theological challenges. In military, biomedical, industrial and other applications, these technologies are changing how humans think about themselves, their futures, and how their societies are organized. Such an unstoppable and global force requires scrutiny through a new interdisciplinary theological lens. Some researchers have made tentative theological responses, but this work is missing cohesion and leaves open many crucial questions. Insights from contextual and ecological theologies make significant contributions in addressing gaps in interdisciplinary theological discourse about robots and AI. This thesis applies a postfoundationalist approach, especially as expressed by Wentzel van Huyssteen, to the transversal intersection between robots, AI, and theological reasoning. Contextual analysis complements this methodology. Study of four key roboticists and AI researchers—Hans Moravec, Rodney Brooks, Cynthia Breazeal, and Heather Knight—illustrate the complexity of this field, including important methodological differences within the robotics and AI community. Diverse and disparate theological literature on robots and AI is collated into