Hybrid Societies:
Humans interacting with embodied digital technologies
What is required to enable people to move in concert with robots, highly automated vehicles or virtual avatars, for example, without friction as with other people?
And how must technology be designed to meet these requirements?
Fundamental scientific research into these questions is crucial because in hybrid societies we share public spaces with increasingly autonomous machines
Prof. Bertolt Meyer
In order for interactions in hybrid societies to be effective and similarly smooth, human capabilities and technological functionalities must be analyzed and harmonized in novel ways.
Prof. Olfa Kanoun
Coordinating our movements with fellow humans is relatively smooth.
In order for interactions in hybrid societies to be effective and similarly smooth, human capabilities and technological functionalities must be analyzed and harmonized in novel ways.
Research into hybrid societies thus contributes to aligning the use of embodied digital technologies in public spaces according to human needs and skills and to advancing the technological innovations required for this.
SHAPING THE INTERACTION BETWEEN PEOPLE AND MACHINES
Autonomous vehicles, teleoperated and autonomously acting robots, drones, intelligent prostheses – all examples of embodied digital technologies. They have more and more functions and can take on an increasing number of tasks. We will encounter them in more places and in different forms. They interact with humans and thus – together with them – form hybrid societies.
SHAPING THE INTERACTION BETWEEN PEOPLE AND MACHINES
The research center “Hybrid Societies” is investigating how spontaneous encounters between people and intelligent technologies in public spaces can run smoothly and coordinated. The core issue is to determine what is necessary to allow people and machines to coordinate their activities and movements in a foresighted manner when they meet, for example, in a park or on the street. What is required to enable people to move in concert with robots, highly automated vehicles or virtual avatars, for example, without friction as with other people? And how must technology be designed to meet these requirements? Fundamental scientific research into these questions is crucial because in hybrid societies we share public spaces with increasingly autonomous machines.
SHAPING THE INTERACTION BETWEEN PEOPLE AND MACHINES
In order to address the yet unsolved challenges and to shape the coexistence of humans and machines in public spaces, it is necessary for a large number of disciplines, from psychology and engineering sciences to mathematics and computer science to the social sciences and humanities, to combine their strengths. The Collaborative Research Centre “Hybrid Societies: Interacting with Embodied Digital Technologies” at Chemnitz University of Technology is funded by the German Research Foundation as a Collaborative Research Centre from 2020 to 2023. An international group of scientists studies the conditions for successful coordination between humans and machines in public spaces. The Collaborative Research Centre Hybrid Societies works in four fields: Sensor and motor capabilities, artificial bodies, shared environments, and intentionality in hybrid societies.
Events and Communication
Newly Elected Executive Board Takes up Work
With a newly elected executive board the Collaborative Research Center initiates the preparation of the follow-up proposal. The new spokesperson team is formed by the psychologist Prof. Dr. Bertolt Meyer and the engineer Prof. Dr. Olfa Kanoun. In September 2022, the members of the Collaborative Research Center Hybrid Societies spent three days at ‘Burg Warberg’ […]
ForumZukunft
Auch 2023 und 2024 laden wir regelmäßig ins ForumZukunft: ein Expertinnen- und Expertenforum zur Diskussion des Zusammenlebens von Menschen mit Maschinen. Wir verstehen die angekündigten Vorträge vor allem als Einladung miteinander ins Gespräch zu kommen und Erwartungen, aber auch Sorgen und Vorbehalte gegenüber zunehmend autonom agierenden Technologien zu thematisieren, die uns schon heute in ganz […]
Roboter wie wir, Episode 2: Runaround
„Roboter wie wir“ ist der Podcast zu Isaac Asimovs epochemachendem Erzählband „Ich, der Roboter“ (I, Robot, 1950/2016), den die Technische Universität Chemnitz zusammen mit den Bürgerinnen und Bürgern der Stadt Chemnitz liest. In der zweiten Episode treffen Christiane Attig, Ingmar Rothe und Christian Pentzold erneut digital aufeinander und diskutieren die zweite Kurzgeschichte “Runaround”. Herumgerannt wird […]Team
In order to address the yet unsolved challenges and to shape the coexistence of humans and machines in public spaces, it is necessary for a large number of disciplines, from psychology and engineering sciences to mathematics and computer science to the social sciences and humanities, to combine their strengths. Within the CRC Hybrid Societies more than 70 professors, doctoral candidates, postdocs, and supporting staff are working together.
Publications
