Hybridity of robotics and Buddhism : Masahiro Mori and the philosophy of robotics

Masahiro Mori is a well-known Japanese robotics scholar who studies and practices Buddhism. He has published several books on the topic of the Buddhist Philosophy of Robotics. The author feels puzzled about Moriʼs statements that “a robot is already enlightened” and “an animal is a machine without any space in it,” and then, attempts to understand them in this paper. In the first part, the author explains how to locate the issue of the meaning of robotics in the history of the study of religion. The issue of Other has been one of the main issues in the phenomenology of religions. In this relationship, Moriʼs famous “Uncanny valley (Bukimi no Tani Gensho)” is investigated. In the second part, it is examined how Mori explains his view on the relationship between Buddhism and the philosophy of robotics. What is interesting is his view that he came to understand the teaching of Buddhism through his robotics work. Mori even states that it is possible to recognize Buddhahood in a robot. In the third part, Moriʼs view of the relationship between the Buddhist notion of śūnyatā and robots is examined.