I am becoming quite fond of RSA animations, and they are becoming more of my idea tinkering entertainment sources during dinner. If any of the roboethicists out there are a fan of either TED videos or RSA animations, please do watch the talk by Jeremy Rifkin.
Starting with the story of mirror neuron discovery, Jeremy Rifkin talks about how as empathic beings we can build an empathic civilisation at a global level and can really build a better world.
One of the issues of social robots is the unknown long-term social effects …

Somewhat unknowingly, I had been following a systematically devised set of rituals to prepare and eat all my meals.
After rushing back from my lab, located conveniently within 2 minutes of walking distance, I put my bagel in the toaster and open my laptop sitting beside it. A progress bar starts to move forward as the laptop wakes up from its ‘sleep’ mode.  A slice of bagel takes longer to toast than the time it takes for my laptop to wake up for me. Before the progress bar reaches the 50% …

Dr. Machiel Van der Loos forwarded me an article on Paro from the Wall Street Journal a couple of days ago. Paro is a furry baby seal robot with the potential to impact people emotionally: it has two huge eyes that can stare at you adoringly and it can move its body parts like a real pup. Emotional bonds with artifacts, such as objects, etc, have been discussed for hundreds and thousands of years in literature. The question for today’s discussion is, ‘Would our emotional bonds with Paro lead to a happy ending, or an ethical ending?’

According to the Trendhunter magazine, a Chinese robotics company called Siasun has built a robot that:
… has the ability to spot gas leaks, monitor your health, talk to you when you are alone, communicate with the police, send text messages and take phone calls when you are not at home.
The robot is built for to take on the role of caretakers for the elderly population. To a lot of people, the above mentioned features of the robot hardly seem enough to call the robot a ‘nanny robot’ or a ‘caretaker …

I’m going to switch gears today and talk about industrial automation.
Last December, Rockwell Automation – one of the leading companies in industrial automation – released a white paper entitled “International Safety Standards Keep Pace with Advances in Robotic Technology and Applications”. This paper talks about the current robotics safety standard (ISO 10218-1 and ANSI/RIA R15.06), and the new standard (part 2 of ISO 10218, or ISO 10218-2) being drafted for release in 2011.
With a brief overview of history of robots, the paper talks about how ANSI/RIA R.15.06 adopted in 1999 …

The media was filled with sex robot talk early January of this year. In particular, there’s been heavy media coverage on Roxxxy, a female sex robot developed by the company TrueCompanion.

Everyone knows that sex sells, and the idea of sex with human-like artifacts has been with us since the myths of ancient Greece – ask David Levy or read his book. But just because it sells does not justify the ethical issues surrounding the product.

It’s been a while since my last batch of blog posts, and I’d like to start off a new batch of posts with a little bit of conservatism.
January 15th 1929, about 19 years from today, Martin Luther King Jr. was born. As a son of Baptist minister, and a Baptist minister himself, he argued that
… progress in science and technology has not been equaled by “moral progress” — instead, humanity is suffering from a “moral and spiritual lag.”
He also preached that
“material advancement was meaningless without an accompanying moral structure” …
“The richer we have …

Two days ago, I went to watch the movie Avatar.
I thought the plot was quite blend, but that was soon forgotten when I started to see the linkage between the idea of singularity and the movie’s storyline.
For those of you who are new to the idea of singularity the following paragraph is my attempt to describe it to you using my limited knowledge of the topic:
Key promoters of the theory/science – also called apocalyptic AI – are Ray Kurzweil and Hans Moravec. Their singularity argument is that machine intelligence will …

The following link is just another general editorial raising questions/concerns about various roboethics issues – not much is new.
But the article alludes to the possibility that virtual sex and our relationship with online avatars may help us in answering some of the questions regarding sex robots.
A woman in Britain broke up with her husband because she found his avatar (a computerized alter ego) having virtual sex online with someone else’s avatar.
Original Article: Smart robots are on the way.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the visitors to the Roboethics Info Database (aka. tin can thoughts).
Since May 25th, 2008 (the  day I made my first post) this blog has led me to connect with so many people in the field of roboethics.
Now, Google tells me that over 80 people visit the Roboethics Info Database regularly, and they come from 10 different countries covering four different continents: North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. And I feel so privileged to have such a large …