PHILOSOPHY IN THE COMMUNITY

a free Lecture and Discussion Series

Lecture # 4
Wednesday, December 10th, 7PM
The Refinery the basement of Emmanuel Anglican Church.
609 Dufferin Ave., at 12th St.

Robot Ethics: Can Machines Be 'Moral’?
Prof. Will Buschert

Ever since the term “robot” was first introduced by Karel Čapek in 1920 science fiction has been preparing us to believe that robots are capable of morally bad behaviour. Yet while fictional robots are often portrayed as fully-fledged moral agents, capable of self-directed, autonomous action and possessing distinctive moral character, many people continue to believe that, in actuality, robots will never be capable of ‘real’ moral agency. For many years this was an essentially speculative, ‘merely philosophical’ topic. In recent years, however, it has assumed increasing practical significance. In the already-upon-us world of driverless cars, military robots, and automated financial software systems, questions about how (or whether) morality can be programmed into machines are becoming more and more acute. This talk will explore some of those questions, including questions about what the investigation of machine ethics might be able to tell us about the nature of morality generally.

All welcome

More information at: http://www.usask.ca/philosophy/community/
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