From Control to Symbiosis: Ethical reflections on human-machine relationships from the perspective of actor-network theory

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, algorithmic systems, and intelligent agents, human-machine relationships are gradually evolving from traditional one-way control to multidimensional symbiosis. This paper, through an overview of actor network theory and an analysis of its applicability in reshaping human-machine relationships, further points out core ethical issues in this evolution, including the paradox of autonomy versus dependence, misalignment of responsibility attribution, a breakdown in interpretability and trust, and conflicts between efficiency and value. To address these issues, actor network theory offers a new path for developing healthy human-machine relationships: maintaining the continuous presence of human action within the technological network, ensuring the continuous manifestation of the generative trajectory of human-machine interaction within the network structure, maintaining the cyclical relationship between human experience and technological translation, and actively embedding ethical principles into the technological action chain. This aims to achieve the synchronous coordination of technological agency and social value in networked interaction, clarifying that human-machine symbiosis is not only a goal of technological optimization but also an inevitable requirement for ethics and governance, providing theoretical and practical references for the sustainable development of intelligent systems in future society.