Proxy citizens and robotic things as social catalysts
Weekly thoughts on human-AI co-performances
I was wondering if I should write here a bit about Tesla's We, Robot event. I really want to explore why humanoids are not so interesting. In that sense, the presented robotaxis are more worth checking out; it also feels like another round of broken promises (see below in the news section).
There is a nice link with the thoughts triggered through the workshop at Society 5.0 Festival with the Wijkbot (Hoodbot), both while preparing and the work the participants did—the link to think about the role of citythings that are nearby robotic things more than robots. What I tried to establish with a different approach for the workshop was moving away from seeing robotic things as objects with a function, to objects that are shaping interactions. Interactions of the things with the citizens, and maybe even more the interactions between citizens.
Without going into the details of the workshop—there are other places and moments to do—it turned out to be very well possible for the groups to discuss what social interaction to unlock with the Wijkbots. For example, sharing food tasting and different coffees to connect people of different cultures.
We aim to have the Wijkbot as an active artifact for thinking through prototyping. We also aim to have it not only as an endpoint but as a platform for capturing the burning questions others can iterate on.
The core idea is that these robots should act as interfaces within the social fabric, especially in digitally connected neighborhoods. Rather than being functional machines, they could become conversation accelerators. This leads to the notion that robots could take on different roles in the community, acting as companions or guides for the people living there.
In essence, robots should become a part of the neighborhood, functioning almost like proxy citizens. This concept of "proxy citizens" is fascinating—it allows us to explore how robots can embody roles that make them feel like an extension of the human community, contributing to social connections.
In lots of the explorations with Wijkbots, I aim to look at the relationships the citizens will have with the neighborhood robots and what the perceived relationship and ownership with hoodbots operating as proxies of their own roles in that neighborhood. I expect that a new balance might emerge, but new social structures, hierarchies, and roles might also emerge. In that sense, connecting these explorations to more fundamental research on technology, autonomy, and agency would be interesting. That is for another time.
This weekly “Triggered Thought” is written as part of the Target is New newsletter, which offers an overview of captured news from the week, paper for the week, and interesting events. Find the full newsletter here.
About the author; Iskander is particularly interested in digital-physical interactions and a focus on human-tech intelligence co-performance. He chairs the Cities of Things foundation and is one of the organizers of ThingsCon. Target is New is his “practice for making sense of unpredictable futures in human-AI partnerships”.