tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1780806945960886534.post1378047823789474096..comments2024-03-28T05:47:54.177+00:00Comments on Philosophical Disquisitions: The Robotic Disruption of MoralityJohn Danaherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761686258507859309noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1780806945960886534.post-7393562853895204822019-09-30T12:51:52.143+01:002019-09-30T12:51:52.143+01:00There are rich pickings for an empirical research ...There are rich pickings for an empirical research program here. I'd be particularly interested in how the introduction of smart speakers in many homes affects the development of moral intuitions in children. Children can give orders to smart speakers in ways that would be frowned upon when talking to the adults whose voices those speakers imitate. Children refer to the speaker as "the robot" and expect it to obey without question. This is quite different to the way they understand animals. There are well established experimental paradigms for examining moral development that could be applied here.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1780806945960886534.post-55206601176989120322019-08-12T17:30:33.699+01:002019-08-12T17:30:33.699+01:00It's a good point and I am embarrassed to have...It's a good point and I am embarrassed to have not mentioned it in the post. <br /><br />I suspect animals exist largely in the intermediate range (at least nowadays since we take a less and less instrumentalist approach to them). Given this, and given that we have coexisted with animals for such a long time, it might put paid to the notion that significant disruption occurs as a result of this mode of interaction. That said, I'd be interested in reading more about how people who rely heavily on animals for day to day activities (e.g. blind people with guide dogs) understand their relationships with them. I'm sure work must have been done on this.John Danaherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06761686258507859309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1780806945960886534.post-35371941445282215742019-08-09T00:55:28.390+01:002019-08-09T00:55:28.390+01:00No deep thoughts, I'm afraid. Merely that we a...No deep thoughts, I'm afraid. Merely that we already interact with other animals on this exact dimension, from tool to dignified, and we already know reasonably well that they don't take a "second personal stance" but give them a certain amount of standing wrt autonomy and intentionality. I quite like Karl Schroeder's idea that AIs can borrow intentionality from animals they are designed to identify with (I was considering the analogy of those sheepdogs who take up the life of being a sheep) or inanimate natural objects, say a landform or an environment, where they will become a preserving ecological "force" (he now uses the term "deodand" for such an AI).<br />David Duffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12142997170025811780noreply@blogger.com