Living with Robots

Dumouchel (philosophy, Ritsumeikan Univ., Japan) and Damiano's (logic & philosophy of science, Univ. of Messina, Italy) book is a thoughtful and engaging discussion about an emerging area in applied ethics—social robotics. As technology advances, the authors contend that some robots will not merely act as tools but will interact with human beings in "socially meaningful" ways, fulfilling roles that have traditionally involved relationships among people, with artificial intelligences acting as educators, caregivers, and pseudoagents. The authors argue that a sufficiently competent social artificial intelligence will be able to play robust agent-like roles, be attentive to differences in persons, and possess a degree of autonomy. However, they suggest that this does not require robots to possess the same internal mechanisms as humans or understand human emotions. Instead, the authors advocate focusing on how robots act, rather than their internal capacities and motivations. This engaging and substantive text is accessible to nonacademic audiences and rife with useful cultural touchstones that explore common hopes and fears revolving around artificial intelligences and robots.