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.