My impression is that the tool/agent distinction is really about whether we use the social-modeling parts of our brain. It’s a question not about the world as much as about what’s a fruitful outlook. Modeling humans as humans works well—we are wired for this. Anthropomorphizing the desires of software or robots is only sometimes useful.
My impression is that the tool/agent distinction is really about whether we use the social-modeling parts of our brain. It’s a question not about the world as much as about what’s a fruitful outlook. Modeling humans as humans works well—we are wired for this. Anthropomorphizing the desires of software or robots is only sometimes useful.