What is Essential to Being Human?: Can AI Robots Not Share It? : Routledge : 9780367368289 : 0367368285 : 15 Jul 2021 : "This book asks whether there exists an essence exclusive to human beings despite their continuous enhancement - a nature which can serve to distinguish humans from artificially intelligent robots, now and in the foreseeable future. Considering what might qualify as such an essence, this volume demonstrates that the abstract question of 'essentialism' underpins a range of social issues that are too often considered in isolation and usually justify 'Robophobia', rather than 'Robophilia,' in terms of morality, social relations and legal rights. Any defense of human exceptionalism requires clarity about what property(ies) ground it and an explanation of why these cannot be envisaged as being acquired (eventually) by AI robots. As such, an examination of theconceptual clarity of human essentialism and the role it plays in our thinking about dignity, citizenship, civil rig