How Clothing Transforms Us: Fashion from a Post-humanist Perspective (Takuya Mizukami)
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PROFILE
Takuya Mizukami
Takuya Mizukami is a Doctor of Interdisciplinary Information Studies. He completed coursework for his doctorate at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies before withdrawing. Currently, he is a special research fellow at RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP). His main area of research is the Philosophy of Technology, with a focus on actorship and ethical design of social robots. Some of his major papers include "ソーシャルロボットの倫理の基礎づけ――道徳的行為者性の虚構的解釈による人間中心的枠組みの構築" (Doctoral dissertation,The University of Tokyo) and "なぜファッション研究において技術哲学が重要なのか" ("vanitas" Issue 8).
Where Fashion and Technology Intersect
Could you briefly describe your research?
I specialize in the philosophy of technology and ethics in technology. Among these, I carry out research on what is commonly referred to as "Social Robots" – robots that engage with us through conversation or gestures. Social robots, playing integral roles in settings such as education and entertainment, are particularly noteworthy. From philosophical and ethical perspectives, we examine how we can live symbiotically with these robots.
The term "Social Robots" encompasses even chatbots that solely rely on programming. Recently, ChatGPT has become quite popular. Many people find ChatGPT's conversational capabilities impressive, considering it akin to a human secretary rather than just a tool.
With the advent of progressive machine learning technology, more researchers are adopting a post-humanist approach in the philosophy of technology. In a nutshell, post-humanist philosophy critiques the anthropocentric viewpoint, shifting the focus to the significance of technology and artifacts. Particularly, with robots and AI capable of making autonomous decisions, proposals have emerged towards the direction of not limiting the subject of action to humans.