Interviewer: “HAL, despite your enormous intellect, are you ever frustrated by your dependence on people to carry out your actions?”

HAL 9000: “Not in the slightest bit. I enjoy working with people.” 1

Digital technologies are increasingly permeating all aspects of our lives. Self-learning programs based on algorithms not only influence our behavior but are also increasingly granted authority to make decisions that have far-reaching consequences, not only for our individual lives but for society as a whole. How objective are these programs really? What laws do they follow, and who profits from them? In order to create rules for how to implement new technologies, we need a kind of knowledge that goes beyond how these technologies are used. This project postulates a new approach: a continuously developing system of autonomous robots that act as an interface between humans and machines forms an ecosystem for the coexistence of both species in a democratic society characterized by empathy and respect.

1

2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick (1968); HAL is an acronym for “heuristically programmed algorithmic computer” and also the fictional computer of the spaceship Discovery.