Robot Ethics Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Agents Edited by Ronald C. Arkin Dorigo, Marco, and Marco Colombetti, Robot Shaping: An Experiment in Behavior Engineering Arkin, Ronald C., Behavior-Based Robotics Stone, Peter, Layered Learning in Multiagent Systems: A Winning Approach to Robotic Soccer Wooldridge, Michael, Reasoning about Rational Agents Murphy, Robin R., An Introduction to AI Robotics Mason, Matthew T., Mechanics of Robotic Manipulation Kraus, Sarit, Strategic Negotiation in Multiagent Environments Nolfi , Stefano, and Dario Floreano, Evolutionary Robotics: The Biology, Intelligence, and Technology of Self-Organizing Machines Siegwart, Roland, and Illah R. Nourbakhsh, Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots Breazeal, Cynthia L., D esigning Sociable Robots Bekey, George A., Autonomous Robots: From Biological Inspiration to Implementation and Control Choset, Howie, Kevin M. Lynch, Seth Hutchinson, George Kantor, Wolfram Burgard, Lydia E. Kavraki, and Sebastian Thrun, Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementations Thrun, Sebastian, Wolfram Burgard, and Dieter Fox, Probabilistic Robotics Mataric, Maja J., The Robotics Primer Wellman, Michael P., Amy Greenwald, and Peter Stone, Autonomous Bidding Agents: Strategies and Lessons from the Trading Agent Competition Floreano, Dario, and Claudio Mattiussi, Bio-Inspired Artifi cial Intelligence: Theories, Methods, and Technologies Sterling, Leon S., and Kuldar Taveter, The Art of Agent-Oriented Modeling Stoy, Kasper, David Brandt, and David J. Christensen, An Introduction to Self-Reconfi gurable Robots L in, Patrick, Keith Abney, and George A. Bekey, editors, Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics Robot Ethics The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics Edited by Patrick Lin, Keith Abney, and George A. Bekey The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2 012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected] or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. This book was set in Stone by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Robot ethics : the ethical and social implications of robotics / edited by Patrick Lin, Keith Abney, and George A. Bekey. p. cm. — (Intelligent robotics and autonomous agents series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-01666-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Robotics— Human factors. 2. Robotics— Moral and ethical aspects. 3. Robotics— Social aspects. 4. Robots— Design and construction. I. Lin, Patrick. II. Abney, Keith, 1963– III. Bekey, George A., 1928– TJ211.49.R62 2012 174 ′ .9629892— dc23 2011016639 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xi I Introduction 1 1 Introduction to Robot Ethics 3 Patrick Lin 2 Current Trends in Robotics: Technology and Ethics 17 George A. Bekey 3 Robotics, Ethical Theory, and Metaethics: A Guide for the Perplexed 35 Keith Abney II Design and Programming 53 4 Moral Machines: Contradiction in Terms or Abdication of Human Responsibility? 55 Colin Allen and Wendell Wallach 5 Compassionate AI and Selfl ess Robots: A Buddhist Approach 69 James Hughes 6 The Divine-Command Approach to Robot Ethics 85 Selmer Bringsjord and Joshua Taylor III Military 109 7 Killing Made Easy: F rom Joysticks to Politics 111 Noel Sharkey 8 Robotic Warfare: Some Challenges in Moving from Noncivilian to Civilian Theaters 129 Marcello Guarini and Paul Bello vi Contents 9 Responsibility for Military Robots 145 Gert-Jan Lokhorst and Jeroen van den Hoven IV Law 157 10 Contemporary Governance Architecture Regarding Robotics Technologies: An Assessment 159 Richard M. O’ M eara 11 A Body to Kick, but Still No Soul to Damn: L egal Perspectives on Robotics 169 Peter M. Asaro 12 Robots and Privacy 187 M. Ryan Calo V Psychology and Sex 203 13 The Inherent Dangers of Unidirectional Emotional Bonds between Humans and Social Robots 205 Matthias Scheutz 14 The Ethics of Robot Prostitutes 223 David Levy 15 Do You Want a Robot Lover? The Ethics of Caring Technologies 233 Blay Whitby VI Medicine and Care 249 16 Robot Caregivers: Ethical Issues across the Human Lifespan 251 Jason Borenstein and Yvette Pearson 17 The Rights and Wrongs of Robot Care 267 Noel Sharkey and Amanda Sharkey 18 Designing People to Serve 283 Steve Petersen VII Rights and Ethics 299 19 Can Machines Be People? Refl ections on the Turing Triage Test 301 Rob Sparrow 20 Robots with Biological Brains 317 Kevin Warwick Contents vii 21 Moral Machines and the Threat of Ethical Nihilism 333 Anthony F. Beavers VIII Epilogue 345 22 Roboethics: The Applied Ethics for a New Science 347 Gianmarco Veruggio and Keith Abney List of Contributors 365 Index 373 Preface Nothing is stranger to man but his own image. — Karel C ˇ apek in R ossum’ s Universal Robots (1921) If not yet the world, robots are starting to dominate news headlines. They have long been working on our factory fl oors, building products such as automobiles, but the latest research from academic labs and industry is capturing our imagination like never before. Now, robots are able to deceive, to perform surgeries, to identify and shoot trespassers, to serve as astronauts, to babysit our kids, to shape shift, to eat biomass as their fuel (but not human bodies, the manufacturer insists), and much more. As a case of life imitating art, science fi ction had already predicted some of these applications, and robots have been both glorifi ed and vilifi ed in popular culture — so much so that we are immediately sensitive, perhaps hypersensitive, to the possible challenges they may create for ethics and society. The literature in robot ethics can be traced back for decades, but only in recent years, with the real possibility of creat- ing these more imaginative and problematic robots, has there been a growing chorus of international concern about the impact of robotics on ethics and society. For the serious reader interested in this dialog, it takes some work to pull together the various strands of discussions from books and scholarly journals to media articles and websites. Thus, we have designed this edited volume to fi ll that gap in the infor- mation marketplace: to be an accessible and authoritative source of expert opinions on a wide range of issues in robot ethics, all in one location. While there is some technical material in this edited collection of papers, it does not presuppose much familiarity with either robotics or ethics, and therefore it is appropriate for policymak- ers, industry, and the broader public as well as university students and faculty scholars. Chapters in part I of this volume provide a broad survey of the issues in robot ethics; discuss the latest trends in robotics; and give an overview of ethical theories and issues as relevant to robotics. Then, to provide guideposts for the reader, parts II onward begin with a short introduction that summarizes the chapters in each part,