10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17507
application/pdf
2038-3460
17507
2
en
Chris Csíkszentmihályi
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Probots (Cover’s Comment)
Text.Serial.Journal
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/
12
Editorial
2022-03-26
2023-06-28
2022-03-26
2023-10-23
TS
Chris Csíkszentmihályi
2021
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17507
2038-3460
2
en
Probots (Cover’s Comment)
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17507/16351
12
                                                      Cover’s comment


Probots (2015-) by Chris Csíkszentmihályi

Probots are teleoperated robots designed to replace or augment human
protestors in demonstrations and manifestations. They are designed to
disassemble into a suitcase, be reassembled in short order, and to picket
for up to eight hours. They are controlled via smart phones, and each has
a megaphone and can either produce synthesized speech or relay a human
voice. They can protest in Santiago, controlled by a clicktivist in a café on
the Left Bank.

Should protest be conducted by robots? What does it mean to have a
vacant body in public space, that neither understands nor benefits from a
direct action, but is only a proxy? Can movement solidarity be
maintained through telepresence? Regardless of the answers to these
questions, governments are funding research and development of next-
generation autonomous weapon systems: UCAVs, USVs, UGVs, LAWs,
ARSS, SUGVs, VIPeRs and Ripsaw MS1s, ULAQs and Krunks…
Thousands of different models, increasingly used by police forces in
addition to armies, all built atop decades of civilian research by computer
scientists and electrical engineers. Should war be conducted by robots?
Too late! Rhetorical question!

Probots were developed1 on the island of Madeira with engineers Victor
Hugo Aguilar and Victor Azevedo, based in part on an idea from Julio
Fernandez Ostolaza. They are part of a series of politically engaged
robots that Csíkszentmihályi has been developing since 1991, including
hunter hunter, Species Substitute, Afghan eXplorer, and the DJ I, Robot
Sound System. These projects and others may be found at
https://www.edgyproduct.org/

Chris Csíkszentmihályi is an artist and Associate Professor of Information
Science at Cornell University, where he leads the Redistributive Computing
Systems Group2

Photocredit: Sara Tranquada



1
    https://github.com/VitorHugoAguiar/ProBot
2
    https://rc.infosci.cornell.edu/
