
Moral Machines
Teaching Robots Right from Wrong
Oxford University Press Inc
1st Edition
Published on 20. November 2008
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-19-537404-9 (ISBN)
Description
Computers are already approving financial transactions, controlling electrical supplies, and driving trains. Soon, service robots will be taking care of the elderly in their homes, and military robots will have their own targeting and firing protocols. Colin Allen and Wendell Wallach argue that as robots take on more and more responsibility, they must be programmed with moral decision-making abilities, for our own safety. Taking a fast paced tour through the latest thinking about philosophical ethics and artificial intelligence, the authors argue that even if full moral agency for machines is a long way off, it is already necessary to start building a kind of functional morality, in which artificial moral agents have some basic ethical sensitivity. But the standard ethical theories don't seem adequate, and more socially engaged and engaging robots will be needed. As the authors show, the quest to build machines that are capable of telling right from wrong has begun. Moral Machines is the first book to examine the challenge of building artificial moral agents, probing deeply into the nature of human decision making and ethics.
Reviews / Votes
When machines go it alone, accountability disappears - and with it the rule of law. Which is why philosophers Wendall Wallach and Colin Allen are asking how we can persuade robots to do the right thing. The result, in their seminal...book Moral Machines, makes clear just how far we have to go. * Stephen Cave, Financial Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
622 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-537404-9 (9780195374049)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
07/2010
1st Edition
Oxford University Press Inc
€40.80
Shipment within 15-20 days

E-Book
11/2008
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€17.49
Available for download

E-Book
11/2008
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€17.49
Available for download
Persons
Colin Allen is a Professor of History & Philosophy of Science and of Cognitive Science at Indiana University.
Wendell Wallach is a consultant and writer and is affiliated with Yale University's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics.
Wendell Wallach is a consultant and writer and is affiliated with Yale University's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics.
Author
Professor of History & Philosophy of Science and of Cognitive ScienceProfessor of History & Philosophy of Science and of Cognitive Science, Indiana University
Content
Preface ; 1. Who Machine Morality? ; 2. Engineering Morality ; 3. Do We Want Computers Making Moral Decisions ; 4. Can (Ro)bots Really be Moral? ; 5. Philosophers, Engineers, and the Design of Artificial Moral Agents; ; 6. Top Down Morality ; 7. Bottom-Up and Developmental Approaches ; 8. Merging Top Down and Bottom Up ; 9. Beyond Vaporware? ; 10. Beyond Reason ; 11. A More Human-Like AMA ; 12. Beyond the Beyond: Managing Dangers, Rights, and Responsibilities ; Epilogue