Ethics and Robotics – fall 2013

 

Week

Date

Topic

Assignment Due

1

8/26

Class Introduction

 

 

8/28

Culture and sociology of science

Gieryn1

2

9/2

Labor Day: no class

 

 

9/4

Culture and sociology of science

Latour1

3

9/9

Case discussion: cold fusion

Gieryn2

 

9/11

Robotics news and society

Student short reports

4

9/16

Robotics news and society

 

 

9/18

Singularity

Singer1, Moravec, Kurzweil

5

9/23

Singularity, continued

Pearce, Weizenbaum

 

9/25

Consequentialist ethics

Hinman1

6

9/30

Consequentialist ethics

 

 

10/2

Ethics of Character

Hinman2

7

10/7

CPSR student project report

Student presentations

 

10/9

CPSR student project report

Student presentations

8

10/14

Gray Goo and Self-replication

Joy, Bringsjord

 

10/16

Self-replication

Cho, Sipper, Chang

9

10/21

Rhetoric and communication

Latour2, McDermott, Nourbakhsh

 

10/23

Artificial Morality

Wallach1, Wallach2

10

10/28

Artificial Morality

Sullins, Sawyer

 

10/30

No class: Illah on travel

 

11

11/4

Military Robotics

Arkin, Singer 2

 

11/6

No class: Illah on travel

 

12

11/11

Student project mid-way reports

Student presentations

 

11/13

Robot servitude, Underemployment

Petersen

13

11/18

Ethics, Law and Robot Privacy

Calo

 

11/20

Futurism: Robot Futures discussion

Robot Futures1

14

11/25

Futurism: Robot Futures discussion

Robot Futures2

 

11/27

Thanksgiving Break, no class

 

15

12/2

Student QoL final presentations

 

 

12/4

Student QoL final presentations

 

 

 

 

 

Student Project Details

 

Robotics News and Society Reports

Individual project. Choose a news story in a popular national or international news source concerning robotics from the past one year.  Your assignment is to read the article, then prepare an analytical in-class presentation that you will give.  The presentation should summarize the article, then evaluate the news story from technical, rhetorical and sociological points of view.  What merit and shortcomings does the story have? What impact does this article have on society and on decision-makers?  Your presentation is oral and backed by visuals to be presented from a computer. You should post the visuals and source story on-line using tools of your choice, and the presentation you make should be 15 minutes long (we will then have a q&a discussion).  You will be graded based on the quality of your analysis, the quality of your visuals and the quality of your presentation.

 

CPSR Project Review

Individual project. Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is an example of a professional technical organization dedicated to comprehending and scaffolding the practice of computer science in an ethical manner.  This project is a research and presentation effort.  Conduct a survey of one groups like CPSR which may be acting within a variety of technical niches (e.g. all of engineering as in IEEE, and specific disciplines such as CS and Civil Engineering).  Characterize the existing organization as well as the impact it does or does not have on its communities.  Talk about this existing organization in class, with visuals, as well links to organizations’ websites if appropriate.  The in-class presentation should be approximately 20 minutes.  Have some remarks at the end about any applicability you see to robotics.

 

 

Student Project: Medical Robotics and Quality of Life Robotics

Individual project.  The major, graded individual project near course completion is an application of all class materials and learning to the subfield of quality of life robotics.  Each student will choose a specific robotics project that is current and ongoing in one of the aforementioned subfields.  The student’s assignment is to learn as much as possible about this specific project, then create a written analysis of the project from an ethics standpoint.  The student deliverables include: a written summary and ethical analysis that should be 5-15 pages; visuals that will be used for a 15 minute presentation in-class; two in-class presentations during the latter half of the semester.  The ethical analysis is an opportunity to apply what is learned in the class. To succeed the student should meaningfully and concretely evaluate not only the project as-is but also possible futures that the project ought to and could inhabit.  Think deeply, and be much more than a straightforward technologist.

 

 

 

Reading List

-Arkin, selected readings from Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots (reading available here);  Arkin: pp 29-36; 37-48; 62-67; 138-143
-Bringsjord, Ethical Robots: the future should heed us
-Calo, Robots and Privacy
-Chang, news article Scientists report they have made robot that makes its own robots
-Cho, news article Making machines that make other machines
-Gieryn, selected readings from Cultural Boundaries of Science (download reading selections here and here) ; Gieryn1: pp vii – xii; pp 15-18 ; Gieryn2: pp 183-232
-Hinman, two book chapters on Ethics ;  Hinman1: The Ethics of Consequences: Utilitarianism (Consequentialism) (available here) ; Hinman2: The Ethics of Character: Aristotle and Our Contemporaries (available here)
-Joy, Why the Future doesn’t need us
-Latour, selected readings from Science in Action (download reading selections here and here) ; Latour1: pp 40-44; pp 104-108 ; Latour2: pp 30-33
Lichocki et al., A Survey of the Robotics Ethical Landscape
-McDermott, Artificial Intelligence meets Natural Stupidity
-Moravec & Kurzweil, Scientific American articles Rise of the Robots and The coming merging of mind and machine (This reading jointly available here)
-Nourbakhsh, The Rhetoric of Robotics
-Pearce (reading available here), The Biointelligence Explosion
-Petersen, The Ethics of Robot Servitude
-Sawyer, Robot ethics
-Singer, selected readings from Wired for War (Selected readings here and here); Singer1: pp 94-108 ; Singer2: pp 19-41; 123-134; 205-236; 315-325; 382-412
-Sipper, Scientific American article Go Forth and Replicate
-Sullins, When is a robot a moral agent?
-Wallach1, Artificial Morality
-Wallach2, Moral decision-making

-Weizenbaum (readings are here and here); Weizenbaum questions are here.

[not used this year] Borenstein, Robot caregivers
[not used this year] Decker, Caregiving robots
[not used this year] Turkle, Authenticity in the age of digital companions

 

Grading Policy

 

This course includes intensive reading, discussion and application of the concepts learnt to real robotics projects. 

 

Grading includes all the following components:

 

Reading analyses: reading responses are due by plain-text email to me by 9:00AM before class begins, because we will discuss these readings in class.  Zero credit will be given for late submissions, and the only possible exceptions to this rule will involve exceptions granted well ahead of the due date for reasons such as travel.  These responses total 40% of your grade.

 

In-class discussion participation: active participation comprises 15% of your grade.

 

Individual news story project: this project comprises 15% of your grade.

 

Individual medical robotics and QoL final project: this is the most important single project done for the course and comprises 30% of your grade.