A Technoethical Approach to Original Sin: Will Robots Sin? - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

A Technoethical Approach to Original Sin: Will Robots Sin?

Timothy Opperman

Uncomfortable Definitions

— Behaviorist - Functionalist — Reductionistic — Practical

Uncomfortable Definitions

— Autonomous – functioning without direct

human input

— Moral – operating within the moral/

ethical sphere

— Agent – capable of action – for computer

science, more like information processing

Uncomfortable Definitions

— “behaviorally indistinguishable from

genuine moral agents.”

• (Wallach & Allen, 58)

Uncomfortable Definitions

— Interactivity: Response to stimulus by

change of state; that is, the agent and its environment can act on each other

• Floridi & Sanders, 349

Uncomfortable Definitions

— Autonomy: Ability to change state

without stimulus, that is, without direct response to interaction, which results in a certain degree of complexity and decoupledness from the environment

• Floridi & Sanders, 349

Uncomfortable Definitions

— Adaptability: Ability to change the

“transition rules” by which the state is changed; that is, the agent may be viewed as learning its own mode of

• peration in a way which depends

critically on its experience

• Floridi & Sanders, 349

Case Study

— MedEthEx – medical ethics advisor — prompts interactive feedback — processes data — responds adaptively

• Michael and Susan Anderson

Evolution of Morality

— Selfishness is morally neutral and

ultimately necessary for survival.

— It is only with the advent of human

conscience, within a system of morality, that selfish behavior becomes sinful.

Evolution of Morality

— Sin is a relational term — Fracturing of relationship between us

and God

Evolution of Morality

— Conscience evolved with

consciousness

Christopher Boehm Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame, 17

Evolution of Morality

— Conscience evolved with

consciousness

— Biology and culture, nature through

nurture, worked together to make us adaptively moral beings

Christopher Boehm Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame, 17

Morality for AMAs

— TOP-DOWN — religious ideals, moral codes, cultural

values, philosophical systems

— Ex. The Golden Rule, Ten

Commandments, Utilitarianism, Kant’s categorical imperatives, Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics

Morality for AMAs

— Case Study – MedEthEx — Top-Down

• autonomy
• beneficence
• non-malfeasance

Morality for AMAs

— BOTTOM-UP — “Creating environment where an agent

explores courses of action, learns, and is rewarded for behavior that is morally praiseworthy.”

• Wallach & Allen, 80

Morality for AMAs

— BOTTOM-UP — John Holland

• genetic algorithms
• Alife (artificial life)

Morality for AMAs

Evolutionary Robotics

— Genetic algorithms — Success = “fitness” — Programming is “recombined” — Mutations added — Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

Morality for AMAs

Peter Danielson, UBC Centre for Applied Ethics

— Moral ecologies – Artificial Morality:

Virtuous Robots for Virtual Games

— Functional morality — Analogous – too simplistic

Morality for AMAs

— “Moral concepts surely emerge in all

social beings, including, when they materialize, social machines.”

• Thomas Georges, Digital Souls:

Intelligent Machines and Human Values

Conclusion

— Will Robots Sin? - Stupid question — They will, if we let them.

(Top-Down)

— They will, when they learn from us.

(Bottom-Up)

— It’s up to God