I thought another significant difference was that “Ethics” doesn’t even imply getting as far as “How do I?”.
No, Machine Ethics is the field concerned with exactly the question of how to program ethical machines. For example, Arkin’s Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots is a work in the field of Machine Ethics.
In principle, a philosopher could try to work in Machine Ethics and only do speculative work on, for example, whether it’s good to have robots that like torture. But inasmuch as that’s a real question, it’s relevant to the practical project.
I was under the impression that Machine Ethics is mostly being researched by Computer Science experts and AI or Neuro-something specialists in particular.
My prior for someone already doing research in IT concentrating their research efforts into “How do I code something that does X” is much higher than for someone doing research in, say, propagation of memes in animal populations or intergalactic lensing distortions (Dark Matter! *shivers*).
I was under the impression that Machine Ethics is mostly being researched by Computer Science experts and AI or Neuro-something specialists in particular.
Pretty much a mix of people who know about machines and people who know about ethics. Arkin is a roboticist. Anderson and Anderson are a philosopher/computer scientist duo. Colin Allen is a philosopher, and I believe Wendell Wallach is too.
I’d argue that the best work is done by computing/robotics folks, yes.
No, Machine Ethics is the field concerned with exactly the question of how to program ethical machines. For example, Arkin’s Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots is a work in the field of Machine Ethics.
In principle, a philosopher could try to work in Machine Ethics and only do speculative work on, for example, whether it’s good to have robots that like torture. But inasmuch as that’s a real question, it’s relevant to the practical project.
I was under the impression that Machine Ethics is mostly being researched by Computer Science experts and AI or Neuro-something specialists in particular.
My prior for someone already doing research in IT concentrating their research efforts into “How do I code something that does X” is much higher than for someone doing research in, say, propagation of memes in animal populations or intergalactic lensing distortions (Dark Matter! *shivers*).
Pretty much a mix of people who know about machines and people who know about ethics. Arkin is a roboticist. Anderson and Anderson are a philosopher/computer scientist duo. Colin Allen is a philosopher, and I believe Wendell Wallach is too.
I’d argue that the best work is done by computing/robotics folks, yes.