Law, Human Agency and Autonomic Computing : The Philosophy of Law Meets the Philosophy of Technology

__Law, Human Agency and Autonomic Computing__ interrogates the legal implications of the notion and experience of human agency implied by the emerging paradigm of autonomic computing, and the socio-technical infrastructures it supports. The development of autonomic computing and ambient intelligence – self-governing systems – challenge traditional philosophical conceptions of human self-constitution and agency, with significant consequences for the theory and practice of constitutional self-government. Ideas of identity, subjectivity, agency, personhood, intentionality, and embodiment are all central to the functioning of modern legal systems. But once artificial entities become more autonomic, and less dependent on deliberate human intervention, criteria like agency, intentionality and self-determination, become too fragile to serve as defining criteria for human subjectivity, personality or identity, and for characterizing the processes through which individual citizens become moral and legal subjects. Are autonomic – yet artificial – systems shrinking the distance between (acting) subjects and (acted upon) objects? How ‘distinctively human’ will agency be in a world of autonomic computing? Or, alternatively, does autonomic computing merely disclose that we were never, in this sense, ‘human’ anyway? A dialogue between philosophers of technology and philosophers of law, this book addresses these questions, as it takes up the unprecedented opportunity that autonomic computing and ambient intelligence offer for a reassessment of the most basic concepts of law. Law, Human Agency and Autonomic Computing The philosophy of law meets the philosophy of technology Copyright Contents Acknowledgements On the contributors Foreword Introduction: a multifocal view of human agency in the era of autonomic computing Chapter 1 Smart? Amsterdam urinals and autonomic computing Chapter 2 Subject to technology: on autonomic computing and human autonomy Chapter 3 Remote control: human autonomy in the age of computer-mediated agency Chapter 4 Autonomy, delegation, and responsibility: agents in autonomic computing environments Chapter 5 Rethinking human identity in the age of autonomic computing: the philosophical idea of trace Chapter 6 Autonomic computing, genomic data and human agency: the case for embodiment Chapter 7 Technology, virtuality and utopia: governmentality in an age of autonomic computing Chapter 8 Autonomic and autonomous ‘thinking’: preconditions for criminal accountability Chapter 9 Technology and accountability: autonomic computing and human agency Chapter 10 Of machines and men: the road to identity. Scenes for a discussion Chapter 11 ‘The BPI Nexus’: a philosophical echo to Stefano Rodotà’s ‘Of Machines and Men’ Epilogue: technological mediation, and human agency as recalcitrance Index Introduction : a multifocal view of human agency in the era of autonomic computing / Mireille Hilderbrandt Smart : Amsterdam urinals and autonomic computing / Don Ihde Subject to technology on autonomic computing and human autonomy / Peter-Paul Verbeek Remote control : human autonomy in the age of computer-mediated agency / Jos de Mul & Bibi van den Berg Autonomy, delegation and responsibility : agents in autonomic computing environments / Roger Brownsword Rethinking human identity in the age of autonomic computing : the philosophical idea of the trace / Massimo Durante Autonomic computing, genomic data, and human agency : the case for embodiment / Hyo Yoon Kang Technology, virtuality and Utopia : governmentality in an age of autonomic computing / Antoinette Rouvroy Autonomic and autonomous "thinking" : preconditions for criminal accountability / Mireille Hildebrandt Technology and accountability : autonomic computing and human agency / Jannis Kallinikos Of machines and men : the road to identity : scenes for a discussion / Stefano Rodot 'The BPI Nexus' : a philosophical echo to Stefano Rodotas of machines and men / Paul Mathias Epilogue : technological mediation, and human agency as recalcitrance / Antoinette Rouvroy.