New technologies are shaping our everyday lives to an increasing extent. Take a look at the public discourse: it’s no less than a mythological minefield. This applies, in particular, to topics such as artificial intelligence and robotics. Fuelled by the clickbait logic of the tabloid press and popular culture, dystopias are constantly conjured up. While some fears are justified, others are unfounded – in other words, not properly thought through. It is important to steer the focus away from the machine and towards the human, while exploring a few basic questions in this connection.