Publication

Anticipatory science fiction to foster ethical debates on AI and robotics

Conference Article

Conference

International Symposium on Anticipation and Anticipatory Systems: Humans Meet AI (ANTICIPATION)

Edition

2019

Pages

1-3

Doc link

https://www.oru.se/english/schools/humanities-education-and-social-sciences/conferences/aldre/anticipation2019/program/

File

Download the digital copy of the doc pdf document

Abstract

The influence that hyperconnectivity and our increasing interaction with machines will have on the evolution of society and on people’s daily lives is difficult to predict. Thus, when trying to anticipate the potential benefits and risks of information technologies, not just lay people resort to science fiction (SF), but some scholars and even companies do so. Several universities, particularly in the US, include in their Computer Science and Engineering degrees a course on ethics and human values relative to technology. In this context of university education, my novel The Vestigial Heart (MIT Press, 2018) has been published together with online materials to teach a course on Ethics in Social Robotics and AI. Anticipatory literature has always taken science seriously and has tried to project its accomplishments into the future. It seems that science is also starting to take this literature seriously and find inspiration therein. This confluence could be extremely productive and is very good news, opening up interesting perspectives for the coming years.

Categories

artificial intelligence, robots, social aspects of automation.

Author keywords

Roboethics, Ethics in Technology, Ethics Education, Science Fiction

Scientific reference

C. Torras. Anticipatory science fiction to foster ethical debates on AI and robotics, 2019 International Symposium on Anticipation and Anticipatory Systems: Humans Meet AI, 2019, Örebro, Sweden, pp. 1-3.