Robot Ethics

Robots today serve in many roles, from entertainer to educator to executioner. As
robotics technology advances, ethical concerns become more pressing: Should robots be programmed to
follow a code of ethics, if this is even possible? Are there risks in forming emotional bonds with
robots? How might society--and ethics--change with robotics? This volume is the first book to bring
together prominent scholars and experts from both science and the humanities to explore these and
other questions in this emerging field. Starting with an overview of the issues and relevant ethical
theories, the topics flow naturally from the possibility of programming robot ethics to the ethical
use of military robots in war to legal and policy questions, including liability and privacy
concerns. The contributors then turn to human-robot emotional relationships, examining the ethical
implications of robots as sexual partners, caregivers, and servants. Finally, they explore the
possibility that robots, whether biological-computational hybrids or pure machines, should be given
rights or moral consideration. Ethics is often slow to catch up with technological developments.
This authoritative and accessible volume fills a gap in both scholarly literature and policy
discussion, offering an impressive collection of expert analyses of the most crucial topics in this
increasingly important field.