Title: ETHICS AND ROBOTICS
1ETHICS AND ROBOTICS
- Rafael Capurro
- Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart
- Università di Pisa, 17-18 Maggio 2007
- Luomo e la macchina. Passato e Presente
2Content
- A. Meta-theoretical Questions
- B. Techno-ethical Issues
- General Background
- Epistemological, ontological, and psychoanalytic
implications - Ethical aspects of man-machine relations
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
3A. Meta-theoretical Questions
- From which standpoint do we - as ethicists -
speak? - And for whom?
- What are the consequences and what is the
(potential) field of application of an ethics of
human interaction with communication, bionic and
robotic systems (in the following techo-ethics)?
4A. Meta-theoretical Questions
- An important part of it should be an ethics of
technology design and production. - Techno-ethics should support strong, contestatory
democratic practice and citizen activity that is
involved in the creation of techno-scientific
artifacts.
5A. Meta-theoretical Questions
- The leading question is how to design an
interdisciplinary process that also involves
engineers and technology designers in the ongoing
discussion.
6A. Meta-theoretical Questions
- A second question is, whether or how is it
possible (and desirable) to develop a general
ethics for any kind of robots and agents. - In which case(s) do we need a differentiation of
fields of application and types of robots /
agents with regard to ethical concerns?
7A. Meta-theoretical Questions
- A third question should also be cui bono? For
whom and by whom are robots developed? - Who fits the standards that robots and robotic
devices like AIBO, Pino, Paro, Kismet etc.
embody? - Do they contribute to deeper equality, keener
appreciation of heterogeneous multiplicity, and
stronger accountability for livable worlds?
8A. Meta-theoretical Questions
- Besides that a reflection on the socio-cultural
context of the debate on robots and agents is
needed.
9A. Meta-theoretical Questions
- What kind of societal conflicts and power
relations are intertwined in the production and
usage of agents and robots? - How does the fusion of science, technology,
industry and politics come into play? - What about the military interest in robotics and
agents?
10A. Meta-theoretical Questions
- Last but not least a central task for
techno-ethics is to learn the lessons from the
discussion on bioethics.
11A. Meta-theoretical Questions
- For example We should avoid abstract discussions
of the agency or intentionality of agents and
robots and reflect whether they are helpful to
work out the contest on the future development
and use of agents and robots.
12B.Techno-ethical Issues
- 1. General Background
- The massive use of robots will change society
probably in a similar way as cars and airplanes
(and in former times ships etc.) did and it
already changed society think of industrial
robots in the workplace who are an important
factor with regard to the growing unemployment in
Europe.
13B. Techno-ethical Issues General
- This broad view of societal changes and
consequently of the view(s) of ourselves,
including our (moral) values, is fundamental
There may be a re-definition of what it means to
be human For instance the EU Charter of Human
Rights is human centered. The massive use of
robots may challenge this anthropocentric
perspective.
14B.Techno-ethical Issues General
- Why do we want to live with robots? What do we
live with robots for? There are different levels
of reflection when answering these questions,
starting with the trivial one that robots can be
very useful and indeed indispensable for instance
in todays industrial production or when dealing
with situations in which the dangers for humans
are big. But before reflection in this direction
let us take the perspective of what René Girard
calls mimetic desire.
15B.Techno-ethical Issues
- 2. Epistemological, ontological, and
psychoanalytic implications - The relation between humans and robots can be
conceived as an envy relation in which humans
either envy robots for what they are or they envy
other humans for having robots that they do not
have. In the first case, envy can be positive in
case the robot is considered either as a model to
be imitated or negative in case the relationship
degenerates into rivalry.
16B.Techno-ethical Issues2. Epistemological
- This last possibility is exemplified in many
science fiction movies and novels in which robots
and humans are supposed to compete. Robots are
then often represented as emotion-free androids,
lacking moral sense and therefore less worth than
humans. Counter examples are for instance 2001 A
Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick 1968) or Stanislaw
Lems novel Golem XIV (Lem 1981).
17B.Techno-ethical Issues 2. Epistemological
- The mimetic conflict (René Girard) arises not
only by the fact of imitating what a robot can do
but more basically of imitating what it is
supposed to desire. But a robots desires are
paradoxically our own since we are the creators.
The positive and negative views of robots shine
back into human self-understanding leading to the
idea of enhancing human capabilities for instance
by implanting artificial devices in the human
body.
18B.Techno-ethical Issues 2. Epistemological
- When robots are used by humans for different
tasks, this creates a situation in which the
mimetic desire is articulated either as a
question of justice (a future robot divide) or as
new kind of envy. This time the object of envy is
not the robot itself but the other human
using/having it.
19B.Techno-ethical Issues 2. Epistemological
- The foundational ethical dilemma with regard to
robots is thus not just the question of their
good or bad use but the question of our relation
to our own desire with all its creative and
destructive mimetic dynamism that includes not
only strategies such as envy, rivalry and model
but also their trivial use as a tool that
eventually turns to be a question of social
justice.
20B.Techno-ethical Issues 2. Epistemological
- Robots can be seen as masks of human desire. Our
mimetic desire might influence (but how far?)
the exchange value they get in the market place.
21B.Techno-ethical Issues 2. Epistemological
- Our love affair with them opens a double bind
relationship that includes the whole range of
human passions, from indifference through
idealization until rivalry and violence although
this might not be the case with regard to the
contemporary state of the art in robotics as they
lack still much to much intelligence and
unpredictable behaviour.
22B.Techno-ethical Issues 2. Epistemological
- It is the task of ethical reflection to go beyond
the economic dimension, i.e., to discover the
mechanism that makes possible the invention,
production, and use of robots of all kinds. This
mechanism is nothing else than human mimetic
passion(s) on an individual as well as on a
societal and global scale.
23B. Techno-ethical issues 2. Epistemological
- In a mythical sense robots are experienced by our
secularized and technological society as
scapegoat for what is conceived the humanness of
humanity whose most high and global expression is
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. From
this mythical perspective, robots are the bad and
the good conscience of ourselves.
24B. Techno-ethical issues 2. Epistemological
- In other words, an ethical reflection on robots
must take care of these pitfalls particularly
when considering the dangers of the mimetic
desire with regard to human dignity, autonomy or
data protection. It must reflect the double bind
relationship between humans and robots.
25B. Techno-ethical issues 2. Epistemological
- If robots mirror our mimetic desire we should
develop individual and social strategies in order
to unmask the unattainable object we strive for
that turns into a danger when it looks like a
fulfilment in view of which everything including
ourselves should be regarded as mean to an end.
26B. Techno-ethical issues 2. Epistemological
- The concept of human dignity is a hallmark above
and beyond our own desire. It is a hallmark of
self transcendence independently of technological
and/or religious promises. It allows us to avoid
ideological or fundamentalist blockades by
regulating at the same time the dynamic of
mimetic desire.
27B. Techno-ethical issues 2. Epistemological
- The concept of robot is ambiguous. According to
Karel Capek who first coined the term, a robot is
a human like artificial device, an android, that
is able to perform autonomously, i.e., without
permanent human guidance, different kind of tasks
particularly in the field of industrial
production. Anthropomorphic robots but also
artificial devices imitating different kinds of
living beings have a long tradition. Todays
industrial robots are often not human like.
28B. Techno-ethical issues 2. Epistemological
- There is a tension between technoid and naturoid
artificial products Negrotti 1995, 1999, 2002.
The concept of artificiality itself is related to
something produced by nature and imitated by man.
Creating something similar but not identical to a
natural product points to the fact that anything
to be qualified as artificial should make a
difference with regard to the natural or the
original (Negrotti).
29B. Techno-ethical issues 2. Epistemological
- Robots are mostly conceived as physical agents.
With the rise of information technology softbots
or software agents have been developed that have
also impact in the physical world so that it is
difficult to draw a clear border. - This is also the case with regard to the
hybridization between humans and robots
(cyborgs). - In fact, not only individuals but society as a
whole is concerned with a process of
cyborgization.
30B. Techno-ethical issues 2. Epistemological
- What are robots? They are products of human
dreams (Brun 1992, Capurro 1995). Every robotic
idea entails the hidden object of our desire.
Robots are thus like the images of the gods
(Greek agalma) inside the mask of a satyr.
31B. Techno-ethical issues 2. Epistemological
- According to Jacques Lacans psychoanalytic
interpretation (Lacan 1991), following the
Platonic narrative of the love encounter between
Socrates and Alcibiades in the Symposium (Symp.
222), such small objects are the unattainable
and impossible goal of human desire.
32B. Techno-ethical issues 2. Epistemological
- Plato describes in the Timaeus the work of the
demiurge shaping the world as a resemblance
(agalma) of the divine as a work of joy and
therefore as an incentive to make the copy more
similar to the original (parádeigma) (Tim. 37c).
33B. Techno-ethical issues 2. Epistemological
- In sum, our values or the goal of our desire are
embedded into all our technological devices and
particularly in the kind of products that mimicry
our human identity. Therefore, the question is
not only which values are we trying to realize
through them but why are we doing this?
34B. Techno-ethical issues 2. Epistemological
- Robots are a mirror of shared cultural values
that show to us and to others who we want to be.
We redefine ourselves in comparison with robots
in a similar way as we redefine ourselves in
comparison with animals or with gods. Theses
redefinitions have far-reaching economic and
cultural implications.
35B. Techno-ethical issues 2. Epistemological
- But, who is the we of this kind of
psychoanalytic discourse? - What about an engineering culture which is mostly
involved in the development design of robots? - In gender approaches we have the claim of a
masculine culture of technology production. Do
all people have the same kind of double-bind
relationship to robots? - And what about cultural differences?
36B. Techno-ethical issues
- 3. Ethical aspects of man-machine relations
- How do we live in a technological environment?
- What is the impact of robots on society?
- How do we (as users) handle robots?
- What methods and means are used today to model
the interface between man and machine?
37B. Techno-ethical issues3. Ethical aspects
- What to think about the mimicry of emotions and
stereotypes of social norms? - What kind of language / rhetoric is used in
describing the problem of agent and bots and
which one do we want to use?
38B. Techno-ethical issues 3. Ethical aspects
- In AI and robotics we can often find a sloppy
usage of language which supports
anthropomorphising agents. This language often
implies the intentionality and autonomy of agents
for example when researcher speak of learning,
experience, emotion, decision making (and so on)
of agents. - How are we in science and in our social practices
going to handle this problem?
39B. Techno-ethical issues 3. Ethical aspects
- Robots are not ready-made products of engineers
and computer scientists but devices and emerging
technologies in the making. - What are the consequences of the fact that today
ICT devices are developed by computer scientists
and engineers only? - What is the meaning of the relation master-slave
with regard to robots? - What is the meaning of robot as a partner in
different settings?
40B. Techno-ethical issues 3. Ethical aspects
- Recent research on social robots is focussing on
the creation of interactive systems that are able
to recognise others, interpret gestures and
verbal expressions, which recognize and express
emotions and that are capable of social learning.
- A central question concerning social robotics is
how "building such technologies shapes our
self-understanding, and how these technologies
impact society" (Breazeal 2002, 5).
41B. Techno-ethical issues 3. Ethical aspects
- To understand the implications of these
developments it is important to analyse central
concepts of social robotics like the social,
sociality, human nature and human-style
interactions.
42B. Techno-ethical issues 3. Ethical aspects
- Main questions are
- What concepts of sociality are translated into
action by social robotics? - How is social behaviour conceptualised, shaped,
or instantiated in software implementation
processes? - And what kind of social behaviours do we want to
shape and implement into artefacts?
43B. Techno-ethical issues 3. Ethical aspects
- There is a tendency to develop robots modeling
some aspects of human behavior instead of
developing an android (Arnall 2003). Relative
autonomy is a goal for physical robots as well as
for softbots. - What is the meaning of the concept of autonomy in
robotics? - What are the affinities and differences between
the robotic discourse and the philosophical
discourse?
44B. Techno-ethical issues 3. Ethical aspects
- Obviously, we can experience a strong
bidirectional travel of the concept of autonomy
(as well as that of sociality, emotion and
intelligence) between very diverse discourses and
disciplines. - How does the concept transfer between the
disciplines and especially the strong impact of
robotics change the traditional meanings of
concepts like autonomy, sociality, emotion and
intelligence?
45B. Techno-ethical issues 3. Ethical aspects
- Having regard to the EU Charter of Fundamental
Rights, particularly - Art. 1 Human dignity
- Art. 3 Right to the integrity of the person
- Art. 6 Right to liberty and security
- Art. 8 Protection of personal data
- Art. 25 The rights of the elderly
- Art. 26 Integration of persons with disabilities
46B. Techno-ethical issues 3. Ethical aspects
- The questions are
- (a) Who is responsible for undesired results of
actions carried out by human-robot hybrid teams? - (b) How is the monitoring and processing of
personal data by AI agents to be regulated? - (c) Can bionic implants be used to enhance,
rather than restore, physical and intellectual
capabilities?
47B. Techno-ethical issues 3. Ethical aspects
- An answer might be that all three questions
address possibilities that have an immediate
impact on single human beings, since - responsibility is traditionally attributed to
single actors (which includes individuals), - the human right to privacy protects the ability
to live autonomously, and - enhancements are for the benefit of a singular
person.
48B. Techno-ethical issues 3. Ethical aspects
- The importance of robot-human-integration goes
beyond the level of the single individual and
address the question about how society or
community could and should look like in which
bots are integrated. Probably only certain
members of a society or community will interact
with certain kind of bots, for instance
entertainment bots for rich people, service bots
for elderly or ill people etc.
49B. Techno-ethical issues 3. Ethical aspects
- This kind of interaction with bots may also build
new forms of communities. Close attention should
be paid to what groups of individuals are likely
to interact with certain kind of bots in a
certain context while at the same time keeping
the perspective on the impact of the specific
interactions on the communities and societies in
which this specific forms of interactions take
place.
50B. Techno-ethical issues 3. Ethical aspects
- All three forms of human-bot integration may
include aspects of violation as well as fostering
of human rights and dignity. It may not even
ruled out that one and the same technology may do
have both positive and negative effects.
Surveillance infrastructures may be considered
harmful with regard to privacy, but they may also
enable us to create new kinds of communities.
51Conclusion
- The potential benefits or harm may be caused by
certain forms of human-bot-integration. - How to dissolve arising conflicts, especially if
there is a conflict between the individual
perspective and the perspective of a society or
community?
52Conclusion
- Such kind of enhancements might be considered a
benefit to an individual but also raise new
questions such as - whether only an elite might be able to transform
themselves into cyborgs - or another worse case scenario whether the
unemployed would be forced to be have some sorts
of implants to enable them to do certain jobs.
53Conclusion
- At the time given, there is no need to address
the issue of whether bots should be seen as
persons. Present ethical questions raise the
point of human responsibility as a fundamental
issue to be addressed in an ethical enquiry on
techno-ethics.
54Conclusion
- This includes questions such as
- Who and how should according to which principles
adscript responsibility to whom in cases that
involve human-bot integration? and what should be
the consequences of such an adscription? - Who is responsible for designing and maintaining
an infrastructure in which information about
persons is collected and processed?
55Conclusion
- How does the possibility of invasive human-bot
integration have influence on the concept of
responsibility? This includes - Does the fact that a human being is enhanced lead
to a special kind of responsibility? - What are the consequences for whose who are
responsible for providing the technology used for
enhancement?
56Conclusion
- When addressing the question of responsibility we
should take into account that there are different
levels of responsibility even when ascribing
responsibility to an individual which might be
held responsible - for something with regard to her/his personal
well-being, to the social environment (friends,
family, community), - to his/her specific (professional or private)
role also as a citizen who is responsible to the
society or the state someone lives in, or as a
human being at all.
57Conclusion
- Furthermore this does include the question
whether and how responsibility might be delegated
and whether institutions might be moral
responsible with regard to robots.
58Conclusion
- Robots are less our slaves which is a
projection of the mimetic desire of societies in
which slavery was permitted and/or promoted
than a tool for human interaction. - This throws questions of privacy and trust
(Arnall 2003, 59) but also of the way we define
ourselves as workers in industry, service and
entertainment.
59Conclusion
- This concerns different kinds of cultural
approaches to robots in Europe and in other
cultures that may have different impact in a
global world. Different cultures have different
views on autonomy and human dignity.
60Acknowledgements
- Thanks to Guglielmo Tamburrini (University of
Naples), Michael Nagenborg (University of
Karlsruhe), Jutta Weber (University of
Duisburg-Essen) and Christoph Pingel, (Karlsruhe
Center for Art and Media) for ongoing discussions
on the relationship between ethics and robotics
within the framework of the ETHICBOTS project.
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