Build robots with bodies, interoception and continual sensorimotor coupling as experimental platforms to operationalize and test rival theories of human selfhood (boundary formation, I/Me distinction, bodily ownership). Rather than merely modelling behaviour, these ‘synthetic selves’ would be used as causal probes: if a particular architecture yields durable subjective‑like continuity, that lends empirical weight to the corresponding theory of human selfhood.
— If adopted as a mainstream scientific programme it reframes AI policy and ethics from abstract personhood debates to concrete engineering and regulatory questions about when a system’s embodiment demands new legal or moral treatment.
Jake Currie
2026.03.13
55% relevant
The article provides a concrete mechanical template — sequential anterior‑then‑posterior trunk rotation enabled by a flexible thoracic spine and stiff lumbar spine — that robotics researchers could adopt to design small robots or drones that reorient midair without external reaction surfaces; this links the feline study (Yamaguchi University, The Anatomical Record 2026) to the existing theme of using embodied systems to probe both machine design and questions about agency/embodiment.
Fotini Markopoulou
2026.03.02
92% relevant
The article is a direct, journalist‑level case study of Hiroshi Ishiguro’s Geminoids — embodied humanoid robots explicitly used to probe what counts as 'human' and to experimentally explore selfhood and social response. That maps tightly to the existing idea of using embodied robots as experimental platforms for theories of personhood and consciousness.
Tony J Prescott
2026.01.12
100% relevant
Tony J Prescott’s call to build iCub‑style robots capable of ‘robust subjective experiences’ and the essay’s emphasis on embodiment (iCub at the Italian Institute of Technology) as the experimental route.