Robotic Persons

Robotic Persons will introduce the evangelical community to the journey of Robotic Futurism and how current and forthcoming AI-driven robots will impact human value and dignity. This book will consider three key areas of robotic development and the existential risks on the horizon for humans in the fields of work, war, and sex. There are risks in the fields of work, because there is a temptation to replace human workers with automation. Current arguments for the benefit of war fighting robots posit that these robots will eliminate war and the risk of war, but there is much more to the story. Arguments for sex and companion robots proffer that they will benefit the fringe community or help those who do not have a relative to care for them, but again there are many ethical and philosophical problems with these arguments. Robotic Persons not only introduces the reader to these issues, but also gives an evangelical response to each. There is presently no evangelical work addressing these critical issues. Robotic Persons will argue that granting legal personhood to qualified robots will further prevent dehumanizing use of robots and protect human dignity and value.

Argues that treating people and artificial intelligence differently under the law results in unexpected and harmful outcomes for social welfare.

Why robots defy our existing moral and legal categories and how to revolutionize the way we think about them. Robots are a curious sort of thing. On the one hand, they are technological artifacts—and thus, things. On the other hand, they seem to have social presence, because they talk and interact with us, and simulate the capabilities commonly associated with personhood. In Person, Thing, Robot, David J. Gunkel sets out to answer the vexing question: What exactly is a robot? Rather than try to fit robots into the existing categories by way of arguing for either their reification or personification, however, Gunkel argues for a revolutionary reformulation of the entire system, developing a new moral and legal ontology for the twenty-first century and beyond. In this book, Gunkel investigates how and why efforts to use existing categories to classify robots fail, argues that “robot” designates an irreducible anomaly in the existing ontology, and formulates an alternative that restructures the ontological order in both moral philosophy and law. Person, Thing, Robot not only addresses the issues that are relevant to students, teachers, and researchers working in the fields of moral philosophy, philosophy of technology, science and technology studies (STS), and AI/robot law and policy but it also speaks to controversies that are important to AI researchers, robotics engineers, and computer scientists concerned with the social consequences of their work.

Traces the story of how ancient cultures envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices and human enhancements, sharing insights into how the mythologies of the past related to and shaped ancient machine innovations.

What is the relationship between artificial intelligence, robots, and theology? The connections are much closer than one might think. There is a deep spiritual longing in the world of AI and robotics. Technology is a prayer; it reveals the depth of our eschatology. Through the study of AI and robotic literature one can see a clear desire to both transcend human limitations and overcome the fallenness of human nature. The questions of ethics, power, and responsibility are not new to Christian anthropology. This book will introduce and examine some of the major ethical issues surrounding current AI and robotic technology from a theological and philosophical lens. In the study of AI and robot ethics, the Christian community has a chance to join the global efforts to build technology for good. Will we join them?

This volume is an edition of the papers selected from the 13th International Conference on Advanced Robotics, ICAR 2007, held in Jeju, Korea, August 22-25, 2007, with the theme: "Viable Robotics Service to Human." It is intended to deliver readers the most recent technical progress in robotics, in particular, toward the advancement of robotic service to human.

Studies of the overall impact of robotics on the economy have shown that investments in its various sectors – industrial, professional and service robotics – are increasing globally and the markets associated with them are valued in billions. Robotization improves the competitiveness of enterprises, while collaborative robotics reinvents methods of production. Beyond the economic outlook, service robotics, backed by the development of artificial intelligence, raises challenging ethical and social issues. The legal analysis of robotics is no mean feat because it covers a very diverse technical reality. Companies whose businesses are focused on robotic technologies and applications can be confronted with a complex legal situation resulting from the plurality of the applicable rules which have not necessarily been conceived or adopted bearing in mind their specific constraints. This situation should not hamper their development. It only implies taking cues from the economic legal norms which promote such developments and conducting an analysis of the legal risks which they face, given the applicable rules of liability. This comparative study – carried out by members of the Lexing® Network – proposes an overview, having regard to the legislation of 17 different countries, of the legal issues raised by robotics and the way the law in force responds, in a more or less satisfactory manner. Discover the authors & contributors in details under the tab 'Extraits'.