Preface

Abstract

The increasing deployment of robotic technology in many domains of human life will have a substantial impact on the economic, social and cultural tissues of our societies. Though one can already anticipate some of its huge benefits, it also urges us to try to reflect on its impact on fundamental instances of everyday life and also envisage to what extent essential societal values on which we have based our cultures and legal systems may be eventually affected. On the verge of this technological revolution, experts from academia, industry, military and civilian sectors gathered in the International Conference on Robot Ethics (ICRE 2015) in order to reflect and discuss the main ethical problems resulting from the widespread adoption of robotics. The present book comprehends not only the shared doubts and concerns but above all the common effort to open up new pathways to a future with robots that contributes to a better world. The book is divided into two parts: Part I presents selected contributions of the main speakers and also those of invited guests. These are organized according to relevant domains they are addressing comprising general normative and ethical issues, the ethics of some robotic applications, social and service robotics, robots in defence and war scenario and, finally, legal issues. Part II contains the reflections and accounts of the two other events organized during ICRE 2015: a cinema cycle—The Robot Steps in; and the exhibition Nós e os Robots/Os Robots e Nós Part I starts with Chap. 1. Here, Malle, Scheutz and Austerweil point out that the most ethically challenging role to be played by robots is that of collaborator and social partner. Proposing that such robots must have the capacity to learn, represent, activate, and apply social and moral norms, the authors offer a theoretical analysis of two parallel questions that are: (i) What constitutes this capacity for norms in humans? (ii) How might we implement them in robots?