Nicholas Carr’s 'Glass Cage': Automation Will Hurt Society in Long Run
1–10 of 33 posts
Re: Nicholas Carr’s 'Glass Cage': Automation Will Hurt Society in Long Run
#2Re: Nicholas Carr’s 'Glass Cage': Automation Will Hurt Society in Long Run
#3The moral decision is made by the person who released on their floor a semi-autonomous machine that cannot make moral choices. Calling this "robot morality" is idiotic, akin to saying that because an ax will indifferently cut a log or a human neck, it decides that cutting one is morally equivalent to the other.
Re: Nicholas Carr’s 'Glass Cage': Automation Will Hurt Society in Long Run
#4Roombas don't kill insects, people do.
Re: Nicholas Carr’s 'Glass Cage': Automation Will Hurt Society in Long Run
#5The moral decision is made by the person who released on their floor a semi-autonomous machine that cannot make moral choices. Calling this "robot morality" is idiotic, akin to saying that because an ax will indifferently cut a log or a human neck, it decides that cutting one is morally equivalent to the other.
That was actually the article's point - by releasing this robot of death, you cede moral authority to it. Or by your reckoning, you make the decision to kill; the robot just disguises that fact.
Re: Nicholas Carr’s 'Glass Cage': Automation Will Hurt Society in Long Run
#6The moral decision is made by the person who released on their floor a semi-autonomous machine that cannot make moral choices. Calling this "robot morality" is idiotic, akin to saying that because an ax will indifferently cut a log or a human neck, it decides that cutting one is morally equivalent to the other.
Seriously, the roomba doesn't make a judgment about the insect because the roomba isn't making judgments about ANYTHING, it's just an extension of a human's choices, it just happens at a delay from when the human initially sets it up.
This is as much a question of morality, as saying that a vending machine that crushes an insect in its inner workings is a question of robot morality.
Re: Nicholas Carr’s 'Glass Cage': Automation Will Hurt Society in Long Run
#7The moral decision is made by the person who released on their floor a semi-autonomous machine that cannot make moral choices. Calling this "robot morality" is idiotic, akin to saying that because an ax will indifferently cut a log or a human neck, it decides that cutting one is morally equivalent to the other.
That was actually the article's point - by releasing this robot of death, you cede moral authority to it. Or by your reckoning, you make the decision to kill; the robot just disguises that fact.
But it's sensationally worded. That's true any time we take an action that may have unintended consequences, and what that action is — whether it's releasing a robot vacuum cleaner, striking a log with an axe, or writing a book with potentially dangerous ideas — is irrelevant. My point is that smart people say dumb things when recent technology is involved.
Re: Nicholas Carr’s 'Glass Cage': Automation Will Hurt Society in Long Run
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was actually the article's point - by releasing this robot of death, you cede moral authority to it. Or by your reckoning, you make the decision to kill; the robot just disguises that fact.
But it's sensationally worded. That's true any time we take an action that may have unintended consequences, and what that action is — whether it's releasing a robot vacuum cleaner, striking a log with an axe, or writing a book with potentially dangerous ideas — is irrelevant. My point is that smart people say dumb things when recent technology is involved.
The idea is, we've not had robots to do our killing for us in the past. This is something new. You can kill (bugs in this case) without being present or even knowing its happening. Worth an article I think.
Re: Nicholas Carr’s 'Glass Cage': Automation Will Hurt Society in Long Run
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was actually the article's point - by releasing this robot of death, you cede moral authority to it. Or by your reckoning, you make the decision to kill; the robot just disguises that fact.
But it's sensationally worded. That's true any time we take an action that may have unintended consequences, and what that action is — whether it's releasing a robot vacuum cleaner, striking a log with an axe, or writing a book with potentially dangerous ideas — is irrelevant. My point is that smart people say dumb things when recent technology is involved.
I think, though, that you're getting caught up in quibbling over choice of words and, in the process, missing the point of the article. It's not really advancing the conversation, it's just pedantry for the sake of pedantry.
There is an interesting difference, though it's not the one you've chosen to frame your comments around. It doesn't matter that the Roomba has no more moral agency than a sack of hammers. That's a point the author passes by on the way to the real crux of the article, which is that autonomous machines have a way of masking this fact in a way that tricks humans into ceding their own moral agency. That example of a person who wouldn't knowingly vacuum over a cricket but happily uses a Roomba is just a less politically-charged proxy for the question of autonomous military robots carrying weapons.
Re: Nicholas Carr’s 'Glass Cage': Automation Will Hurt Society in Long Run
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was actually the article's point - by releasing this robot of death, you cede moral authority to it. Or by your reckoning, you make the decision to kill; the robot just disguises that fact.
But it's sensationally worded. That's true any time we take an action that may have unintended consequences, and what that action is — whether it's releasing a robot vacuum cleaner, striking a log with an axe, or writing a book with potentially dangerous ideas — is irrelevant. My point is that smart people say dumb things when recent technology is involved.
The point is that "unintended consequences" are much more likely with complex systems. When you wield an axe, the consequences are fairly direct. When you leave home for the 101st time after buying a Roomba, you are still responsible for the consequences, but they are much harder to keep track of.