Designing the robot that says "NO": Design and ethical implications of love and sex relations with robots
Keywords
No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Issue Date
2017-03-29
Language
en
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The possibility of love and sex relations between humans and robots
has been put on the scientific map by David Levy. In his doctoral dissertation
Intimate relationships with artificial partners (2007a), he defended
the thesis that such relationships will necessarily happen and will
improve the lives of the humans involved. Technical developments on
emotion and personality simulation and current societal discussions
about the use of sex robots call for, respectively, an updated look at
the design implications for such robots and for a virtue-ethical critique
of Levy’s argument. I develop both in this thesis and do so in
three steps. First, I will critically analyze Levy’s argument and use insights
from the field of philosophy of technology to argue that Levy’s
instrumental view of robots does not correctly capture human–robot
interaction. Second, I will connect Levy’s predictions to current developments
in artificial intelligence and robotics. This step will answer
what the current and near-future possibilities and limitations with
respect to our ability to create androids are. Third, I give an ethical
analysis of Levy’s view on human–robot interaction, based on the
critique I developed in the first part and the updated view on robotics
from the second part. For this analysis I use virtue ethics, which
is specifically suited to pragmatic, situated interactions between humans
and robots. To illustrate how such an ethical analysis helps us
to better understand intimate relations between robots and humans,
I present a potential case study.
iii
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen