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1 Burnside Science Reference- General

Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong

by Colin Allen

Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

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.

About the Author

Colin Allen is a Professor of HistoryandPhilosophy 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.

Table of Contents

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


What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
CTDH, January 2, 2010 (view all comments by CTDH)
A comprehensive look at some of the most challenging issued facing our worldwide culture in the near future. Machines are already acting for us. Can we assume that they will behave morally? Allen and Wallach think we can make them do so; the consequences of failure are ugly. Everyone should read this book.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780195374049
Subtitle:
Teaching Robots Right from Wrong
Author:
Allen, Colin
Author:
Wallach, Wendell
Publisher:
Oxford University Press, USA
Subject:
Computers
Subject:
Robotics
Subject:
Ethics & Moral Philosophy
Subject:
Social aspects
Subject:
Artificial Intelligence - General
Subject:
Intelligence (AI) & Semantics
Subject:
Computers -- Social aspects.
Publication Date:
November 2008
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
275
Dimensions:
9.30x6.20x1.10 in. 1.15 lbs.

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