Steps Toward Anthroporobotics: A Conversation With Humberto Maturana.

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	Steps Toward Anthroporobotics: A Conversation With Humberto Maturana.
Authors:	Muñoz-Cristi, Ignacio¹ imucri@gmail.com
Source:	Constructivist Foundations. Nov2025, Vol. 21 Issue 1, p1-12. 12p.
Subject Terms:	Cognition, Theory of knowledge, *Interdisciplinary research, Autopoiesis, Robot design & construction, User-centered system design, Cognitive robotics
Abstract:	Context • Humberto Maturana was a renowned biologist, creator of the biology of cognition and the concept of autopoiesis, whose ontological-constitutive thinking founded a systemic biology and a bioanthropology. >Problem • Thinking about robotics and cognition is often dominated by representationalist schemes. This conversation addresses the challenge of thinking beyond those frames, orienting the design of machines without resorting to semantic notions that obscure processes, and distinguishing the domains of existence of systems. >Method • The basis of this text is an unpublished interview conducted in March 2007, later translated and edited. Maturana’s "method" is expressed by showing experiential coherences of processes instead of explanatory principles, and by proposing generative mechanisms rather than theories. >Results • In the interview, Maturana reflects on the design of robots capable of languaging and emotioning, self-consciously. The conversation articulates a metadesign: operative principles (closed systems, structural plasticity, sensor–effector couplings) and ethical epistemic criteria (objectivity in parentheses, love as the acceptance of the other). >Implications • In the preface, I situate this conversation within anthroporobotics, a transdisciplinary field proposed here, which offers keys for designing artificial systems and for reflecting on our relation with the robotic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database:	Education Research Complete

Description
Abstract:	Context • Humberto Maturana was a renowned biologist, creator of the biology of cognition and the concept of autopoiesis, whose ontological-constitutive thinking founded a systemic biology and a bioanthropology. >Problem • Thinking about robotics and cognition is often dominated by representationalist schemes. This conversation addresses the challenge of thinking beyond those frames, orienting the design of machines without resorting to semantic notions that obscure processes, and distinguishing the domains of existence of systems. >Method • The basis of this text is an unpublished interview conducted in March 2007, later translated and edited. Maturana’s "method" is expressed by showing experiential coherences of processes instead of explanatory principles, and by proposing generative mechanisms rather than theories. >Results • In the interview, Maturana reflects on the design of robots capable of languaging and emotioning, self-consciously. The conversation articulates a metadesign: operative principles (closed systems, structural plasticity, sensor–effector couplings) and ethical epistemic criteria (objectivity in parentheses, love as the acceptance of the other). >Implications • In the preface, I situate this conversation within anthroporobotics, a transdisciplinary field proposed here, which offers keys for designing artificial systems and for reflecting on our relation with the robotic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:	3041671X