Special issue on the abuse and misuse of social agents

Coming across an unknown creature generates anxiety. Its autonomy gives rise to fears; its agency requires vigilance. In the primitive world of predators and prey, it is wise to be leery of anything that moves and to learn as quickly as possible whether a creature is aggressive or possesses dangerous weapons of self-defence. What better way to find that out then to throw a rock at it from a safe distance to see how it reacts and what it is capable of doing to protect itself. Testing, teasing, and poking creatures is so crucial for human and animal survival that it is no wonder these behaviours are also pleasurable, as are play fighting and play chasing (for a review of the literature, see Aldis, 1975). Apparently an elementary predator–prey schema runs across cultures and most species (Lorenz, 1939). Novel mechanical inventions, such as the automobile, can trigger the same predator–prey schema. In the early 20th century, for example, it was not uncommon for people to behave towards cars and tractors as they would towards unknown animals. As reported in Billerter (1997), a groom once reacted to the klaxon of a car going off as he would to the growl of a wild animal, warning his master, ‘‘Sir, sir, don’t go in there, the car is gone crazy, it might take the bit between its teeth and run you over.” (p. 1). Ongoing familiarity with machines quickly corrects mistaken human and animal attributions and primitive fears, but in recent years interactive machines have been developed that look like human beings and that talk and imitate human behaviour. These machines are designed to elicit the natural tendency to animate and to anthropomorphize. Developers would love nothing more than to create beings that sustain the suspension of disbelief for the long term in