Three recent interviews by Gerhard Dabringer

Continuing his series of interviews with people working on robot ethics, Gerhard Dabringer has three recent installments:

George Bekey : Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California and Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Special Consultant to the Dean of the College of Engineering at the California Polytechnic State University. He is well known for his book Autonomous Robots (2005) and is Co-author of the study "Autonomous Military Robotics: Risk, Ethics and Design" (2008).

Jürgen Altmann : University of Dortmund, a founding member of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control. Since 2003 he is a deputy speaker of the Committee on Physics and Disarmament of Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (DPG, the society of physicists in Germany) and currently directs the project on “Unmanned Armed Systems - Trends, Dangers and Preventive Arms Control” located at the Chair of Experimentelle Physik III at Technische Universität Dortmund.

John Sullins : Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Sonoma State University. His specializations are philosophy of technology, philosophical issues of artificial intelligence/robotics, cognitive science, philosophy of science, engineering ethics, and computer ethics.

Paperback edition of Moral Machines

Amazon has started listing the paperback edition of Moral Machines at $17.95 but not yet actually available.

UPDATE: Publication date is listed as June 3.

NPR: The Legal and Moral Issues of Drone Use

NPR's Talk of the Nation conducted an extended thirty minute discussion of legal and moral Issues arising from drone use with Peter Bergen, Amitai Etzioni, and Philip Alston.

Etzioni has also recently written an article titled, Unmanned Aircraft Systems: The Moral and Legal Case, in Joint Force Quarterly, which is a publication of the National Defense University Press (NDU).

As I see it, however, the main point of moral judgment must be faced earlier in the chain of action, well before we come to the question of which means are to be used to kill the enemy. The main turning point concerns the question of whether we should go to war at all. This is the crucial decision because once we engage in war, we must assume that there is going to be a large number of casualties on all sides and that these may well include innocent civilians. Often, discussions of targeted killings strike me as being written by people who yearn for a nice clean war, one in which only bad people will be killed using “surgical” strikes that inflict no collateral damage. Very few armed confrontations unfold in this way. Hence, when we deliberate whether or not to fight, we should assume that once we step on this train, it is very likely to carry us to places we would rather not go, but must. The UAS are a rather minor, albeit a new, stepping stone on this woeful journey.

Robots Among Us

The NYTIMES has an article titled the, Robots Among Us, which contains some interesting images.

Roboethics Symposium at WPI

Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA is sponsoring a daylong symposium (April 10th) on Ethics for Robotics in our Changing World. Noel Sharkey and Ronald Arkin will be keynote speakers.

Time Activity
8:15 Registration & Breakfast Buffet Open
9:00 Introductory Remarks
9:30 - 10:30 Keynote #1: Noel Sharkey
10:40-11:30 Lecture #1: ABB Robotics
11:40-12:30 Lecture #2: WPI Student Group
12:40 Lunch Buffet Opens
1:10 - 2:00 Keynote #2: Ronald Arkin
2:10 - 3:00 Debate Session #1
3:20 - 4:10 Debate Session #2
4:20 - 4:45 Closing Remarks

US House Hearing on Military Drones and the Future of War

Roger F. Gay has brought our attention to:

US House of Representatives Hearing on Rise of the Drones: Unmanned Systems and the Future of War, which was held on March 23rd. Written testimony and webcasts of the two panels are available here.

Panel I:

•Peter W. Singer, Ph.D., Director, 21st Century Defense Initiative, The Brookings Institution; author, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century
•Edward Barrett, Ph.D. (Lt. Col., USAF), Director of Research, Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership, U.S. Naval Academy
•Mr. Kenneth Anderson, Professor, Washington College of Law, American University
•Mr. John Jackson (Captain, USN Ret.), Professor of Unmanned Systems, U.S. Naval War College
•Mr. Michael Fagan (Colonel, USMC Ret.), Chair, Unmanned Aerial Systems Advocacy Committee, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International

Panel II

•Mr. Michael J. Sullivan, Director, Acquisition and Sourcing Management, U.S. Government Accountability Office
•Mr. Dyke Weatherington (Lt. Col., USAF Ret.), Deputy, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Planning Taskforce, Office of the Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, U.S. Department of Defense
•The Honorable Kevin Wolf, Assistant Secretary for Export Administration, Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce

Emotions key to judging others: New piece to puzzle of how human brain constructs morality from study of harmful intent

Evidence that areas involved in emotional regulation are also implicated in moral reactions