From Competence to Coexistence: A Version-by-Version Roadmap for the Entry of Home Humanoid Robots into Everyday Life

This paper critiques the prevailing dichotomy in the philosophy of robotics—robots as existential threat versus robots as legal persons—and proposes a conceptual framework for the gradual entry of humanoid robots into the family, culture, memory, responsibility, and daily life. The central argument is that a home robot should not enter the household with full capabilities at once. Instead, it must advance through a version-by-version path of practical competence. Each version carries an ethical core and operational scope appropriate to its stage. The paper formulates a set of normative principles concerning human control, erasable personal memory, a family constitution for the robot, responsible disobedience, protection of children's personality formation, retirement, cultural citizenship, public identifiability, insurance, and the avoidance of emotional exploitation. The result is a gradual path toward coexistence rather than replacement.