RT Article
T1 What Is the Afterlife Like for Robots? An Experimental Eschatological Sneak Peek
JF Zygon
VO 59
IS 3
SP 692
OP 716
A1 Tretter, Max 1993-
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1917283326
AB People have always pondered their afterlife. Now, as AI and robotics continue to advance and proliferate, a new question emerges: Is there also some kind of "afterlife" for robots—and how can we envision it? This article seeks to explore these very queries from a Christian perspective. To tackle the initial question, I argue that, following the thoughts of St. Paul and St. Augustine, the whole of creation is sinful and seeks completion, it would be inconsistent to nurture such an all-encompassing hope yet exclude robots from it. From a Christian perspective, we should therefore assume the existence of an afterlife for robots. To decipher how we can envision it, I examine two pop-cultural depictions from the television episode "Zima Blue" and the television series Futurama, questioning whether they provide a fitting image of eschatological completion for robots. This methodological approach allows me to present a spectrum of conceptions of robotic afterlife that, when examined through the lens of systematic theology, appear plausible, offering fresh impetus for eschatological and robophilosophical reflections.
K1 Christianity
K1 Protestantism
K1 TV series
K1 Artificial Intelligence
K1 Eschatology
K1 Popular Culture
K1 Robotics
K1 semantic theology
DO 10.16995/zygon.10903