1,721,136 research outputs found
Ethics and Robotics
No full textCurrent developments of robotics bring to the fore pressing ethical, legal, and social issues. Problems of individual responsibility, fair access to technology, human dignity and identity are examined here in the light of novel forms of human-machine interaction. The role of philosophical reflection on scientific method is emphasized throughout in connection with the identification, triage, and monitoring of ethical issues arising in these areas of science and technology
On the ethical framing of research programs in robotics
No full textRobotic systems and technologies step out of research laboratories jointly with information about long term goals of technological inquiry they are lined up with and about the short-term objectives guiding daily laboratory activities. These various ingredients play crucial roles in the pursuit of what are called here technological research programs. A comprehensive ethical framing of technological research programs is decomposed here into the ethical framing of their long-term and short-term goals, respectively. This approach to the ethical framing of technological research is exemplified by reference to fundamental rights in the context of technological research programs on elderly care and child care robots. Moreover, its significance is highlighted in connection with democratic decision-making about new and emerging technologies,
as well as in connection with the cultural production of ignorance which is induced by missing information
about the protection and promotion of fundamental rights in the specific context of robotic technologies
BCI Ethics: Autonomy, Alienation, Personal Identity
No full textBCI technologies are analyzed in the ethical context of medical beneficence, individual and relational autonomy, fundamental rights, and the capability approach in the theory of justice. BCI interaction strategies enable one to disclose new human capabilities and human-machine co-adaptations. Error potentials for negative feedback and machine action monitoring are significant cases in point. Here, ethical reflection prominently concerns the constitution of human capabilities and self-knowledge in human-machine interaction
Human capabilities and consciousness: their empowerment and fragility in BCI contexts
No full textThere are human actions, like enduring, which do not necessarily involve bodily movements. BCI systems for motor substitution and control hold the promise to extend dramatically the repertoire of actions requiring no bodily movements at all. Ethical motivations for these extensions are framed in the context of medical beneficence, individual and relational autonomy, fundamental rights, and the capability approach in the theory of justice
The brain and its language in the control of robotic action
No full textBrain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) enable one to control peripheral ICT and robotic devices by processing brain activity on-line. The following epistemological, philosophy of mind, and ethical issues are examined in connection with BCI-controlled actions.
(i) According to so-called motor theories of thinking, the unique forms of motor rehabilitation therapy afforded by BCI systems may contrast the decline and extinction of thinking in completely locked-in patients.
(ii) Unconscious perceptual processes are used in BCI-enabled, brain-computer cooperative problem solving. There, the functional roles of human “operators” are accounted for at the sub-personal level - without appealing to their intentions, beliefs, and contents of consciousness. Since humans are neither required to act intentionally nor to be aware of their contribution to cooperative problem solving, it is appropriate to ask whether a sub-personal use of human being is lurking here.
(iii) Machine learning is crucially involved in human-machine adaptation processes required for BCI operation. The reliability of BCI learning depends on boundary conditions that are difficult to control, such as mental task execution history and overall mental context. For similar reasons, one can hardly deploy the more abstract mathematical framework of statistical learning theory to evaluate the reliability of learning. These epistemological issues distinctively shape ethical issues – notably including autonomy and responsibility problems – in current BCI environments
Communication by Brain-Computer Interfaces and Human Dignity in Medicine
No full textA variety of technologies demonstrate that recordings of brain activity can be used for both communication purposes and control of peripheral devices. The technologies used for these purposes notably include Brain-Computer Interfaces and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This contribution explores human dignity protection opportunities and issues arising in connection with prospective clinical uses of both kinds of brain reading technologies
Machine intelligence sports as research programs
No full textGames and competitions have played a significant role throughout the history of artificial intelligence and robotics. Machine intelligence games are examined here from a distinctive methodological perspective, focusing on their use as generators of multidisciplinary research programs. In particular, Robocup is analyzed as an exemplary case of contemporary research program developing from machine intelligence games. These research programs arising are schematized in terms of framework building, subgoaling, and outcome appraisal processes. The latter process is found to involve a rather intricate system of rewards and penalties, which take into account the double allegiance of participating scientists, trading and sharing interchanges taking place in a multidisciplinary research environment, in addition to expected industrial payoffs and a variety of other fringe research benefits in the way of research outreach and results dissemination, recruitment of junior researchers and students enrollment
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