#206 Derek Leben: Ethics for Robots, Contractarianism, Self-Driving Cars
Dr. Derek Leben is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown. He works at the intersection of ethics, cognitive science, and emerging technologies. In his new book, Ethics for Robots, Dr. Leben argues for the use of a particular moral framework for designing autonomous systems based on the Contractarianism of John Rawls. He also demonstrates how this framework can be productively applied to autonomous vehicles, medical technologies, and weapons systems.
In this episode, we focus on the main topics of Dr. Leben’s Ethics for Robots. We first discuss the types of robots that need to have ethical systems programmed into them. Then, we get into the issue of how to establish an objective moral system. Dr. Leben explains Contractarianism ethics. We also go over some specific technologies, like self-driving cars, carebots, police-bots, and others, and we refer to specific issues like discrimination and consent. Finally, we talk about the role of science fiction in providing us with thought experiments about emergent and future technology, and to what extent that has a positive or a negative effect.
Time Links:
The types of robots that need ethics
Can morality be objective?
A game theoretical approach to ethics
What is Contractarianism?
Should we program discrimination into the algorithms?
Selecting for the best self-driving cars
Carebots, healthcare, and the issue of consent
Police-bots, judge-bots, justice, and discrimination
How robots and AI are portrayed in fiction, and how it might influence how we think about them
Follow Dr. Leben’s work!
Follow Dr. Leben’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/2WuZds4
Researchgate profile: https://bit.ly/2W92PUr
Ethics for Robots: https://amzn.to/2MPnwBk
Twitter handle: @EthicsForRobots