McCarthy, John and Lyddy, Fiona
(2017)
Robotics and Personhood: Towards an Ethical
Experience-Centred Design.
Project Report.
Royal Irish Academy.
Abstract
Recent advances in robotics have in many ways enhanced the human experience, improving
medical care, providing a safer work environment and bringing novel educational interventions,
for example. But the line between what we allow robots to do and where we give primacy
to human activity and experience is an ethical matter that may be best addressed through
policy; as yet no such policy framework exists. In this statement, we argue that, as we become
more accustomed to intelligent technologies, it is worth considering the risks, as well as the
benefits, that the design and everyday use of such technology may pose for our personhood –
our interpretation of ourselves and others. The ubiquity of computers, robots and intelligent
devices, in our working and social lives, which are increasingly designed to function as a person,
indicates a need for an agreed framework supported by international legislation that would
clearly delineate ethical boundaries (see Sharkey, 2008). Here, we argue for the need for such
a framework, using a focus on ‘social’ robots, such as service and care robots in the workplace
and home, to demonstrate the potential for robot-human conflict. It is here that design practice
has the potential to greatly enhance personhood or detract from it.
| Item Type: |
Monograph
(Project Report)
|
| Keywords: |
Robotics; Personhood; Ethical
Experience-Centred Design; RIA; Royal Irish Academy; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology |
| Item ID: |
12058 |
| Depositing User: |
Fiona Lyddy
|
| Date Deposited: |
18 Dec 2019 16:40 |
| Publisher: |
Royal Irish Academy |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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