Person, Thing, Robot: A Moral and Legal Ontology for the 21st Century and Beyond

Robots are a curious sort of thing.

On the one hand, they are technological artifacts—and thus, things.

On the other hand, they seem to have social presence, because they talk and interact with us, and simulate the capabilities commonly associated with personhood.

In Person, Thing, Robot, David J.

Gunkel sets out to answer the vexing question: What exactly is a robot? Rather than try to fit robots into the existing categories by way of arguing for either their reification or personification, however, Gunkel argues for a revolutionary reformulation of the entire system, developing a new moral and legal ontology for the twenty-first century and beyond.