Robot ethics
Subtitle: the ethical and social implications of robotics
By: edited by Patrick Lin, Keith Abney, and George A. Bekey
Series: Intelligent robotics and autonomous agents; Intelligent robotics and autonomous agents
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 386
ISBN-13: 9780262016667
Subjects: Moral and ethical aspects; Social aspects; Human factors; Robotics; Robots; Design and construction
Description: Robots today serve in many roles, from entertainer to educator to executioner. As robotics technology advances, ethical concerns become more pressing: Should robots be programmed to follow a code of ethics, if this is even possible? Are there risks in forming emotional bonds with robots? How might society--and ethics--change with robotics? This volume is the first book to bring together prominent scholars and experts from both science and the humanities to explore these and other questions in this emerging field. Starting with an overview of the issues and relevant ethical theories, the topics flow naturally from the possibility of programming robot ethics to the ethical use of military robots in war to legal and policy questions, including liability and privacy concerns. The contributors then turn to human-robot emotional relationships, examining the ethical implications of robots as sexual partners, caregivers, and servants. Finally, they explore the possibility that robots, whether biological-computational hybrids or pure machines, should be given rights or moral consideration. Ethics is often slow to catch up with technological developments. This authoritative and accessible volume fills a gap in both scholarly literature and policy discussion, offering an impressive collection of expert analyses of the most crucial topics in this increasingly important field.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction to robot ethics  -- Patrick Lin; title: Current topics in robotics : technology and ethics  -- George A. Bekey; title: Robotics, ethical theory, and metaethics : a guide for the perplexed  -- Keith Abney; title: Moral machines : contradictions in terms or abdication of human responsibility?  -- Colin Allen and Wendell Wallach; title: Compassionate AI and selfless robots : a Buddhist approach  -- James Hughes; title: The divine-command approach to robot ethics  -- Selmer Bringsjord and Joshua Taylor; title: Killing made easy : from joysticks to politics  -- Noel Sharkey; title: Robotic warfare : some challenges in moving from noncivilian to civilian theaters  -- Marcello Guarini and Paul Bello; title: Responsibility for military robots  -- Gert-Jan Lokhorst and Jeroen van den Hoven; title: Contemporary governance architecture regarding robotics technologies : an assessment  -- Richard M. O'Meara; title: A body to kick but still no soul to damn : legal perspectives on robotics  -- Peter M. Asaro; title: Robots and privacy  -- M. Ryan Calo; title: The inherent dangers of unidirectional emotional bonds between humans and social robots  -- Matthias Scheutz; title: The ethics of robot prostitutes  -- David Levy; title: Do you want a robot lover? : the ethics of caring technologies  -- Blay Whitby; title: Robot caregiver : ethical issues across the human lifespan  -- Jason Borenstein and Yvette Pearson; title: The rights and wrongs of robot care  -- Noel Sharkey and Amanda Sharkey; title: Designing people to serve  -- Steve Petersen; title: Can machines be people? : reflections on the Turing triage test  -- Rob Sparrow; title: Robots with biological brains  -- Kevin Warwick; title: Moral machines and the threat of ethical nihilism  -- Anthony F. Beavers; title: Roboethics : the applied ethics for a new science -- Gianmarco Veruggio and Keith Abney.