[LINK] Ethics of Killer Robots

[Tom Worthington]

Philip Argy, president of the Australian Computer Society, wrote a 
thought provoking article "Dilemma in Killer Bots" (The Australian, 
January 16, 2007) 
<http://australianit.news.com.au/common/print/0,7208,21064361%5E15309%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html>:

'WHEN science fiction writer Isaac Asimov developed his Three Laws of 
Robotics back in 1940, the first law was: "A robot may not harm a 
human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to 
harm." ... reports out of Korea of newly developed guard robots 
capable of firing autonomously on human targets are raising concerns 
about their potential uses. ...'.

Roger Clarke wrote an article "Asimov's Laws of Robotics - 
Implications for Information Technology" for IEEE Computer Magazine 
in 1993 <http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/SOS/Asimov.html>.

There are already some domestic robots available which could raise 
safety concerns, even if not designed to deliberately harm people. 
Professor Rodney Brooks, Director of the MIT Computer Science and 
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, gave a talk in Canberra last year 
about the potential for low cost robots.

The Roomba robot vacuum cleaner he talked about and the Lego robot 
kit are examples of low cost units available 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2006/11/hacking-robot-vacuum-cleaners-and-lego.html>.




Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                http://www.tomw.net.au/
Visiting Fellow, ANU      Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml