Robot philosophy, or “robophilosophy”, is a subfield of philosophy that deals with robots (both hardware and software robots) as well as with extension options like artificial intelligence. It focuses particularly (but not exclusively) on more or less autonomous service robots, including care, transportation, and combat robots, as well as chatbots and virtual assistants. It considers not only the development history but also the history of ideas, starting from the works of Homer and Ovid to science fiction books and movies. Disciplines such as epistemology, ontology, aesthetics, and ethics, including robot ethics and machine ethics, are involved; philosophy of technology can be understood as an overarching authority or as an equal, insofar as it mostly sees robots merely as technical tools and less as artificial beings and contemporaries, necessitating robophilosophy’s unique perspective. Philosophy is the doctrine of cognition and knowledge and the principles and methods of the sciences, which can be considered its origin and framework, including for robotics and computer science.
Robophilosophy seemingly shifts its focus away from humans (whom it constantly uses as a model) and poses questions about the characteristics and qualities of robots. Can the concept of autonomy be meaningfully applied to them? Might they, through sensors and forms of artificial intelligence, one day achieve consciousness? Could they think, feel, and suffer – like humans, like animals, or in a different way? What can they recognize and know (again, compared to humans, which is generally the focus of philosophy)? How important are their functional bodies, facial expressions, and gestural abilities? Should robots be designed to resemble humans as androids, or animals, or as abstract entities? Along with robot ethics, robophilosophy explores the possibility of rights for robots, and with machine ethics, their duties, which can also be interpreted as weaker obligations or simply as regulations that machines must follow. However, self-learning systems are capable of adopting their own moral stances (in the broadest sense), which robophilosophy may also discuss. It further, along with information ethics, technology ethics, robot ethics, business ethics, and technology assessment, investigates the consequences of deploying robots, such as the presence, alteration, and valuation of human labor, not just in services but also in industry.
Robotics experts frequently warn against equating (hardware) robots with artificial intelligence. Indeed, robotics and AI, after being briefly viewed in conjunction, have different origins, and their developments must be considered separately. Undoubtedly, however, robots can gain entirely new possibilities through the sub-discipline of computer science, and with proper integration, sensorimotor units and artificial intelligence work together. There is often a closer relationship between software robots and AI systems, up to their merging. Other experts criticize the glorification of robots. They remain machines (even if integrated into organisms, resulting in cyborgs), and it cannot convincingly be argued why they should have rights; the capacity to suffer is not currently foreseeable. It is undisputed that morally justified rules can be implanted in them, without them being conscious of what they are doing and why. Another criticism concerns the discussion about robots. Some experts believe that they do not decide or act. However, such strictness makes it difficult to discuss certain robots at all, and metaphors may be allowed, provided they are not overstretched and are unambiguous. Ultimately, robots, not just service and social robots, are novel, curious subjects (indeed, of morality), with whom we share living spaces, who observe and evaluate their environment and us to react and inform human subjects. As they become economically more relevant, especially as they leave factory cages to work closely with us in production as cooperative and collaborative robots, and support and accompany us on streets and squares, in shopping centers, at hotel receptions, and in households as service and social robots, replacing and supplementing us, ideas and concepts like robot taxes and robot quotas (for public spaces) need to be discussed.
The website robophilosophy.com or robophilosophy.net is maintained by Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel, a robot philosopher, information and machine ethicist who lives and works in Switzerland. Guest contributions are welcome. They should be exclusively scientific and should not promote companies. As this is a non-commercial project, no fees will be paid.