Ethical Common Sense for Robots

Worries About RobotsWe humans have long thought about robots and the possibility of humancreated intelligent beings, with a combination of won der and worry.On the "won der" side, the phenomenon of the human mind seems more miraculous the more we study it.We have consciousness, curiosity, creativity, common sense, and love, among many other amazing characteristics.We learn, mostly from our own experiences in the world, but partly from guidance from parents, teachers, and others.As we learn from infancy to maturity, we move from incoherent thrashing and reacting, to a partially coherent understanding of our physical and social world that supports thoughtful action and communication.The thought of creating something, child or robot, with these characteristics is awe inspiring.On the "worry" side, we are concerned that human-created intelligence will lack the richness of the human mind.That poverty of spirit, linked with the power to act, could lead to tragedy.Long before computers, stories of the Golem, of Frankenstein's monster, of the Sorcerer's Apprentice, and others, show us how humans might create and instruct intelligent beings without being able to anticipate the results of our instructions.Even as these creatures faithfully follow our instructions, they don't follow our intentions, with catastrophic results.Starting in the mid-twentieth century, the concept of computation gave us unpre ce dented ability to express theories of many aspects of the human mind.Once expressed, these theories could be tested, pushed past the point of failure, debugged, and improved.The technologies of digital computing made it pos si ble to implement these computations and embody them in devices able to sense and act in the world.We have made amazing pro gress.Repeatedly, new computational concepts and increasing power to implement them have broken through old barriers, demonstrating new accomplishments by human-created intelligence. Ethical Common Sense for Robots