CS 4002
Robots and Society
Responses to Exercise 1: Brainstorming Ideas

Here are the results from the first in-class exercise. It should give you some ideas to start with on the term paper.

Robots and the economy

   "IS"
    - Replacing people with robots
    - Will robots cause a welfare society
    - Who has access to robots
    - Should government regulate robotics research at the expense of economic benefits

  "OUGHT"
     - Compensate robots for their work
     - Robots replace workers

  "IS"
      - Replacing workers/robots
      - Robots as products
      - Research funding
      - Can speed up production of products

   "OUGHT"
      - Should replace people in dangerous jobs (soldiers, etc.) to reduce liability
      - Should companies be taxed per robot?
      - Should robots be insured?
      - How many jobs should they replace?

Robots and warfare

  "IS"
    - Are robots autonomous
    - To what extent are robots autonomous
    - What are robots used for in warfare
    - Are robots in their current form violating the rules of war

  "OUGHT"
     - Should robots be autonomous?
     - Should robots follow the established rules of war
     - Should a robot be capable of deciding whether a human lives or dies

  "IS"
    - Controlled by an operator (no autonomy)
    - Bomb diffuse
    - Primarily aerial combatants in use
    - no morality (still people killing people)
    - in work autonomous convoys
    - Experimental systems for retrieving wounded

   "OUGHT"
      - Autonomous robots instead of soldiers?
      - Should there be robot vs. human?
      - Should they be confined by Geneva conventions?
      - What happens in a war between robot armies?
      - What happens if control turns over or malfunctions?
      - What happens if your robot army is completely disabled
      - Do robots lead to nuclear warfare
      - Should they feed on humans for power
      - Should control over WMD's be turned over to machines
      - Should sentient machines be forced to fight

Robots and religion

   "IS"
       - Religion has virtually no opinion on robotics (religion before robots)
      - Human is considered by religion as "special" & divine (thus non reproducible)
      - Do robots make us sin (laziness)

   "OUGHT"
       - Should robots have religion
       - Would religion be changed by robots
       - Should robots be made (in religious sense)
       - Should robots "worship" man
       - Robot clergy? Confessions?
       - How to measure robots & religion

    "IS"
       - Is it ethical to implement an internal system of religion into each robot?
       - Is something metaphysicial required for religion?
       - Is religion programmable?

    "OUGHT"
       - Should robots be allowed to develop their own sense of religion from interaction?
       - Should we really come up with some really complicated rules they need to follow?
       - Should robots be programmed to go to church serving as a model for the population?
       - Should humans be allowed to marry robots?

Robots and autonomy

    "IS"
       - Robots have no freedom rights
      - We can do whatever we want with our robots
      - Robots extensions of owners
      - Specialized machines vs. true conscious artificial life (slave labor?)

   "OUGHT"
      - Citizenship/voting rights
      - Access to bill of rights
      - equality
      - need to determine consciousness

   "IS"
      - Will AI ever be considered equal to human intelligence?
      - Can robots be sentient?
      - Can robots co-exist with humans
      - Is society comfortable with autonomous robots

   "OUGHT"
      - Should they have the right to self-preservation?
      - Should we allow robots to be autonomous?
      - Should robots have government representatives?
      - Should humans and robots share common laws?