A Derridean response to Gunkel's account of machine otherness

• Main Author: Alawas, Gulliver Eric C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2021
• Subjects: Derrida, Jacques; Gunkel, David J.; Deconstruction; Machinery; Other (Philosophy); Ethics; Philosophy
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdd_philo/1; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdd_philo/article/1000/viewcontent/2021_Alawas_Gulliver_Partial.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The present work attempts to understand the concept of alterity or otherness in human-level artificial intelligence—on whether or not these machines could be considered as an “other” in moral situations. David Gunkel’s The Machine Question (2012) investigated the concept of machine otherness using Levinas’ alterity, but this is contentious due to its anthropocentric bent. Thus, this study attempts to utilize Derrida’s alterity given its default openness to any sort of “other,” human or non-human. The work is cognizant that the notion of machine otherness will not be fairly assessed without first considering Derrida’s critiques and insights into the socio-cultural, political, and economic motivations underlying the design and deployment of technology; deeper investigations into these motivations could lead to richer perspectives regarding machine alterity. Apart from these motivations, select Derridean concepts, specifically his notions of the metaphysics of presence, iterability, and responsibility, will be used to elaborate on the issue of machine otherness. In the end, a Derridean view of machine alterity is offered, in the spirit of supplementarity, as a provisional way to bridge general moral rules to singular moral necessities.