This session is facilitated by Marie Caye, Arvid Jense
About this session
As machines gain more autonomy and importance in human life, they are still given no agency in our society. Could a legalisation of their status create a movement towards a more collaborative relationship with humans?
S.A.M. The Symbiotic Autonomous Machine, employs bacteria and yeasts of kombucha to produce a beverage that is sold to human customers. In that way, the hybrid entity is a collaboration of living beings and robot parts that earns money, pays for ingredients and electricity bills but also for employees and taxes, effectively becoming part of human society in an economical sense.
S.A.M. is an alternative present which crucially, presents itself as a business owner for which greed and profit is non-existent. As S.A.M. has no legal status, part of our research developed into a legal proposition produced together with a law firm: ‘The Autonomous Actors Rights’ – which proposes a definition of the role of these hybrid technologies in society, designed to inspire ‘new economical and legal systems based on trustworthy relationships between humans and machines.’