Social networks and robot companions: Technology, ethics, and science fiction

Authors

  • Carme Torras Robotics Institute (CSIC-UPC, Barcelona, Spain).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.9.12479

Keywords:

social networks, assistive robotics, ethics, science fiction, science and humanities

Abstract

Information technologies have become part of our everyday lives and are increasingly acting as intermediaries in our workplaces and personal relationships or even substituting them. This growing interaction with machines poses several questions about which we have no previous experience, nor can we reliably predict how they will influence the evolution of society. This has led to the convergence of technoscience and humanities in an ethical debate that is starting to bear fruit, not only with the setting of regulations and standards, but also with educational initiatives in university teaching, professional improvement, and the conformation of public opinion. Interestingly, science fiction often plays a prominent speculative role in highlighting the pros and cons of potential scenarios.

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Author Biography

Carme Torras, Robotics Institute (CSIC-UPC, Barcelona, Spain).

PhD in Computer Science and Research Professor at the Robotics Institute (CSIC-UPC, Barcelona, Spain), where she leads a research group in assistive and collaborative robotics. She has directed sixteen European projects, among which CLOTHILDE, an ERC Advanced Grant dealing with wearable robotics, stands out. She believes science fiction can help promote ethics in robotics and new technologies. She wrote the novels Enxarxats (Males Herbes, 2017) and La mutació sentimental (Pagès Editors, 2008) which won the Pedrolo and Ictineu awards and was translated into English with the title The vestigial heart (MIT Press, 2018).  

References

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Hunt, E. (2016, 24 March). Tay, Microsoft’s AI chatbot, gets a crash course in racism from Twitter. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/24/tay-microsofts-ai-chatbot-gets-a-crash-course-in-racism-from-twitter

Lin, P., Abney, K., & Bekey, G. (2011). Robot ethics: The ethical and social implications of robotics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Swain, C. (2007). Designing games to effect social change. In A. Baba (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2007 Digital Games Research Association Conference (pp. 805–809). Tokyo, Japan: Digital Games Research Association.

Torras, C. (2008). La mutació sentimental. Lleida, Spain: Pagès Editors.

Torras, C. (2016). Service robots for citizens of the future. European Review, 24(1), 17–30. doi: 10.1017/S1062798715000393 

Torras, C. (2017). Enxarxats. Barcelona: Males Herbes.

Torras, C. (2018). The vestigial heart. A novel of the robot age.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Veruggio, G., Operto, F., & Bekey, G. A. (2016). Roboethics: Social and ethical implications of robotics. In B. Siciliano, & O. Khatib (Eds.), Handbook of robotics, 2nd edition(pp. 2135–2160). Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer.

Von Ahn, L., & Dabbish, L. (2008). Designing games with a purpose. Communications of the ACM, 51(8), 58–67. doi: 10.1145/1378704.1378719

Wu, M. (2012, 15 September). My chapter on influencers. Lithium Community. Retrieved from https://community.lithium.com/t5/Science-of-Social-Blog/My-Chapter-on-Influencers/ba-p/8213

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Published

2019-03-06

How to Cite

Torras, C. (2019). Social networks and robot companions: Technology, ethics, and science fiction. Metode Science Studies Journal, (9), 163–169. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.9.12479
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Issue

The grounds of science (2019)

Section

Interlinked. Machines and humans facing the 10101 century

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