Abstract

Human autonomy is not technical “autonomy”. That we refer to both phenomena equivocally reveals a label-transfer from human to technical contexts, i.e., metaphorization. Autonomous humans choose to submit to self-given laws (1). Machines, regardless of the metaphor, cannot shed their heteronomy (2). What is literally meant by “technical autonomy” as opposed to or interchangeable with “automation” needs to be explored in detail (3). To differentiate, multi-layered approaches to technical autonomy have been proposed (4) still revealing the unavoidable metaphorization within the description and analysis of autonomous systems. This metaphorization needs to be analyzed in terms of the similarity relation at work in the conceptual transference, which teaches us that an entity (e.g., an autonomous person) is, is not, and is like another (e.g., an autonomous robot) at the same time.