Ethical Questions For The Age Of Robots

balancedi writes "Should robots eat? Should they excrete? Should robots be like us? Should we be like robots? Should we care? Jordan Pollack, a prof in Comp Sci at Brandeis, raises some unusual but good questions in an article in Wired called 'Ethics for the Robot Age.'"

Comments

Ethical Question?

[sameerdesai]

When you try and raise all these kind of questions, I only ask one!! What is defined as a robot? Webster defines it as 1 a : a machine that looks like a human being and performs various complex acts (as walking or talking) of a human being; also : a similar but fictional machine whose lack of capacity for human emotions is often emphasized b : an efficient insensitive person who functions automatically 2 : a device that automatically performs complicated often repetitive tasks 3 : a mechanism guided by automatic controls So, my next question is what makes us not robot? Apart from only being mechanical, aren't we ourselves a complex machine? If we do ever create one consciousness or AI one day that is self-aware, I guess it is definitely worth asking to treat that as a life-form. However in present case scenario if you really want rights for robots then every computer should be given one 'cos it has a processor which is supposedly its brain.

Re:ethics vs good manners

[Alranor]

Please turn in your geek card and report for remedial South Park training.

Kyle's mom is a big fat ugly bitch, but Cartman's mom is a dirty slut with a scheisse fetish ...

Re:Best? For whom?

[maxpublic]

Good points. There's also some evidence that a) neanderthals didn't breed as fast as homo sapiens, and b) that neanderthals were less violent with each other than homo sapiens were. This latter makes sense when you take into account just how bloody strong a neanderthal is; a scuffle between two neanderthals would most likely end in serious injury or death, even if neither party intended that as the outcome. For a tribe of neanderthals to survive physical violence between its members (and other neanderthal tribes) would have to be kept at a minimum.

Max