Roboethics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roboethics is the ethics applied to robotics. It is the human-centered ethics guiding the design, construction and use of the robots.

1 Issues
2 Main positions on roboethics
3 Disciplines involved in roboethics
4 Principles
5 General ethical issues in science and technology
6 History
7 Next events
8 External links

[edit] Issues

Robotics is rapidly becoming one of the leading fields of science and technology, so that very soon humanity is going to coexist with a totally new class of technological artifacts: robots. It will be an event rich in ethical, social and economic problems. “Roboethics is an applied ethics whose objective is to develop scientific/cultural/technical tools that can be shared by different social groups and beliefs. These tools aim to promote and encourage the development of Robotics for the advancement of human society and individuals, and to help preventing its misuse against humankind.” (Veruggio, 2002) It is the first time in history that humanity is approaching the challenge to replicate an intelligent and autonomous entity. This compels the scientific community to examine closely the very concept of intelligence — in humans, animals, and of the mechanical — from a cybernetic standpoint. In fact, complex concepts like autonomy, learning, consciousness, evaluation, free will, decision making, freedom, emotions, and many others shall be analyzed, taking into account that the same concept shall not have, in humans, animals, and machines, the same reality and semantic meaning. From this standpoint, it can be seen as natural and necessary that robotics drew on several other disciplines, like Logic, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Psychology, Biology, Physiology, Philosophy, Literature, Natural history, Anthropology, Art, Design. Robotics de facto unifies the so called two cultures, science and humanities. The effort to design Roboethics should take care of this specificity. This means that experts shall view robotics as a whole — in spite of the current early stage which recalls a melting pot — so they can achieve the vision of the robotics’ future.

[edit] Main positions on roboethics

Since the First International Symposium on Roboethics (Sanremo, Italy, 2004), three main ethical positions emerged from the robotics community (D. Cerqui, 2004):

Not interested in ethics (This is the attitude of those who consider that their actions are strictly technical, and do not think they have a social or a moral responsibility in their work)
Interested in short-term ethical questions (This is the attitude of those who express their ethical concern in terms of “good” or “bad,” and who refer to some cultural values and social conventions)
Interested in long-term ethical concerns (This is the attitude of those who express their ethical concern in terms of global, long-term questions)

[edit] Disciplines involved in roboethics

The design of Roboethics requires the combined commitment of experts of several disciplines, who, working in transnational projects, committees, commissions, have to adjust laws and regulations to the problems resulting from the scientific and technological achievements in Robotics. In all likelihood, it is to be expected the birth of new curricula studiorum and specialties, necessary to manage a subject so complex, juts as it happened with Forensic Medicine. In particular, the main fields involved in Roboethics are: robotics, computer science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, ethics, theology, biology, physiology, cognitive science, neurosciences, law, sociology, psychology, industrial design.

[edit] Principles

As Roboethics is a human-centered ethics, it has to comply with the principles state in the most important and widely accepted Charts of Human Rights:

Human dignity and human rights.
Equality, justice and equity.
Benefit and harm.
Respect for cultural diversity and pluralism.
Non-discrimination and non-stigmatization.
Autonomy and individual responsibility.
Informed consent.
Privacy.
Confidentiality.
Solidarity and cooperation.
Social responsibility.
Sharing of benefits.
Responsibility towards the biosphere.

[edit] General ethical issues in science and technology

Roboethics shares with the other fields of science and technology most of the ethical problems derived from the Second and Third Industrial Revolutions: