I speak today of this as an exigent challenge, which must be addressed now. I also will share a few thoughts about how to meet this challenge. In the newer, faster environment, ethical concerns greet us around every corner. These concerns are made all the more manifest as once separate, distinct scientific fields converge, encompass areas not traditionally considered scientific, and meet in the marketplace. This increasing confluence of science and commerce suggests that one of the greatest challenges our students will face, that we all do face, is the resolution of the ethical dilemmas that arise at this nexus.
Ethical dilemmas range widely.
At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a young assistant professor of computer science is researching robotic manipulation and mobile robotics. He is working with multiple robots to create a type of collective intelligence to perform a task which one robot cannot perform alone. Acting in teams, these robots will be especially useful in environments inhospitable to humans. In April, Sun Microsystems Chief Scientist Bill Joy wrote an article challenging the ethical standards applied by researchers who develop such new technologies. Bill Joy warned that unconstrained research into bioscience and robotics could produce an intelligence that could self-reproduce unchecked.