Space Foes: Robot as A Revolutionary Subject

Abstract

The concept of revolution remains relevant both for social-political debates and for academic studies. But at the same time many left thinkers as well as Neo-Marxist theorists have some problems with this concept, as it is nolonger possible to reflect on revolution in terms of laws of history. For this reason, supporters of revolution consider revolution as a kind of utopian condition. Another difficulty is connected to the fact that today it is no longer possible to make a bet on this or that social class as the subject of revolutionary changes. Utopia once again becomes a helping hand for supporters of radical social transformations. At the same time cinema as well as technological forecasting suggest to researchers that at least in futurology one can consider the possibility of the subject of revolution being not humans but robots, cyborgs, or artificial intelligence. Seen in this light, revolution not just ceases to be a Marxist concept, but it also drops out of left political rhetoric. But what is more important - it becomes a matter of antiutopian phantasies. In this article the author relying on social philosophy and rich empirical material from contemporary sci-fi cinema reflects on the possibility of the revolution of the robots. He wants to understand under what conditions and why can artificial intelligence organize a revolution. He also reflects on the ethical problems connected to exploitation of machines and wide implementation of robotics in everyday human life. A special emphasis is laid on contemporary anti-utopias, as well as on early movies by Ridley Scott "Alien" and "Blade Runner", which, as the author claims, are very good illustrations of robots' disposition to revolutionary activities.