Ethics Newsline®

BOSTON
The Boston Globe reports that the debate over “robot ethics” has been renewed after an article in the journal Science described how a bug-size robot has been used to coax cockroaches into seeking light, open spaces.

Such behavior is highly unnatural for creatures who have for millennia sought shelter in darkness.

Globe reporter Colin Nickerson writes: “No one cares too much if cockroaches can be hoodwinked into acting against their own interests. Still, it’s surprising that robots can insinuate themselves into colonies of living things, however wee-witted, and more or less take charge.”

“Although not designed to address major philosophical issues, the research nonetheless points to how robot science appears headed in weird and unpredictable directions. Some scientists say it is inevitable that advances will ultimately affect the fundamental relationship between humanity and its machines. And many analysts say it is high time that societies start seriously considering the ethical dimensions of the technological advances, although others contend the dangers are exaggerated,” Nickerson writes.

Nickerson notes that in Asian countries, where robotic research is on the front burner, scientists are taking the ethics issue seriously, looking at unprecedented proposals for laws that would regulate the “rights” given to robots and the decisions the devices would be allowed to make in venues such as hospitals or battlefields.