#312 Sven Nyholm - Humans and Robots: Ethics, Agency, and Anthropomorphism
RECORDED ON JANUARY 11th, 2020.
Dr. Sven Nyholm is an Assistant Professor of Philosophical Ethics at Utrecht University. His main areas of research are applied ethics (especially the ethics of technology), ethical theory, and the history of ethics. More specifically, he has recently published on love-relationships and biomedical enhancements, sex robots, motivation-enhancements, accident-algorithms for self-driving cars, deep brain stimulation, happiness and well-being, meaning in life, and interpersonal respect and moral reasoning. His work also focuses on the ethics of automated driving, human-robot collaboration, deep brain stimulation (including its effect on the self), and disability and the goods of life. He is especially interested in how robotization and other types of automation affect traditional human values, as well as in existential questions raised by new technological developments. He has a new book coming out, Humans and Robots: Ethics, Agency, and Anthropomorphism.
In this episode, we dig into the main topics of his book, Humans and Robots. We refer to the fact that there are different kinds of robots and how we should deal with them. We talk about anthropomorphization, and the intuitions people have about robots’ minds. We raise the question about the way we treat robots spilling into how we treat other humans. We address agency and moral responsibility in the context of self-driving cars and military robots. We ask if we can establish proper relationships with other robots. Finally, we go through what kinds of minds robots can have and what that would mean, and also if robots can also be moral agents and be “good”.
Time Links:
Different kinds of robots and how to deal with them
Treating badly representations of people
The intuitions people have about robots’ minds
Human “laziness”
Is it really the case that if we treated robots like human beings, we would show less respect for human beings themselves?
Robot agency, moral responsibility, self-driving cars, and military robots
What matters most? What’s on robots’ minds, or their behavior?
Can we establish proper relationships with them?
What if we perceive robots as real people?
Can robots have minds?
Can robots be “good”?
Final remarks
Follow Dr. Nyholm’s work!
Follow Dr. Nyholm’s work:
Faculty Page: https://bit.ly/32kljBJ
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/2EVCmjq
Academia.edu profile: https://bit.ly/2O37J2P
Twitter handle: @SvenNyholm
Our first interview (Self-Driving Cars, Love Enhancement, And Sex Robots): https://youtu.be/eEcqxjlz1eg
Humans and Robots: Ethics, Agency, and Anthropomorphism: https://amzn.to/2uEX1WS