Automation and environmental dispositions

Abstract

To think through the dispositions automated systems attempt to generate, it is key to understand how automated systems relate to the environments in which they operate. Developing Lin et al.’s important arguments around dispositions towards automation, this short response suggests the concept of disposition can be broadened to think about non-human dispositions more widely. To do this, the response forwards the notion of environmental disposition; a kind of fundamental state that all entities find themselves in, whereby entities are compelled to enter a more or less provisional position or grounding in an environment or milieu.

Situating and expanding the scope of dispositions towards automation

“…More ambitiously, Ash's (2024) piece alerts us to the possibility of further broadening the focus of dispositions beyond the human, or even automation itself, to more expansively include other non-human entities that are normally out of the picture. Inquisitively, he probes whether it is possible ‘that all entities, technical or otherwise also have a disposition and so are disposed to one another in different ways’.…”

“…In many ways, such an expansionist viewpoint holds immense appeal to us, for it further undermines the ‘simple “hope or fear” binary readings of technology’ (Ash, 2024). Indeed, to revisit the headlines at the start of this response a second time, the actors implicated in these stories go far beyond just AI technology and aggrieved passengers/labour.…”