December 5, 2012
The term roboethics was coined by roboticist Gianmarco Veruggio in 2002, who also served as chair of an Atleier (workshop) funded by the European Robotics Research Network to outline areas where research may be needed. The road map effectively divided ethics of artificial intelligence into two sub-fields to accommodate researchers’ differing interests:
Machine ethics is concerned with the behavior of artificial moral agents (AMAs); and Roboethics is concerned with the behavior of humans, how humans design, construct, use and treat robots and other artificially intelligent beings.
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December 5, 2012
Machine Ethics is the part of the ethics of artificial intelligence concerned with the moral behavior of Artificial Moral Agents (AMAs) (e.g. robots and other artificially intelligent beings). It contrasts with roboethics, which is concerned with the moral behavior of humans as they design, construct, use and treat such beings.
In 2009, academics and technical experts attended a conference to discuss the potential impact of robots and computers and the hypothetical possibility that they could become self-sufficient and able to make their own decisions. They discussed the possibility and the extent to which computers and robots might be able to acquire any level of autonomy, and to what degree they could use such abilities to possibly pose any threat or hazard.
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December 5, 2012
The ethics of artificial intelligence is the part of the ethics of technology specific to robots and other artificially intelligent beings. It is typically divided into Roboethics, a concern with the moral behavior of humans as they design, construct, use and treat artificially intelligent beings, and Machine Ethics, concern with the moral behavior of artificial moral agents (AMAs).
The term ‘roboethics’ was coined by roboticist Gianmarco Veruggio in 2002. It considers both how artificially intelligent beings may be used to harm humans and how they may be used to benefit humans. ‘Robot rights’ are the moral obligations of society towards its machines, similar to human rights or animal rights. These may include the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law.
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December 4, 2012
For German philosopher Martin Heidegger broadly, the question of being formed the essence of his philosophical inquiry.
In ‘The Question Concerning Technology‘ (‘Die Frage nach der Technik’), Heidegger sustains this inquiry, but turns to the particular phenomenon of technology, seeking to derive the essence of technology and humanity’s role of being with it. Heidegger originally published the text in 1954, in ‘Vorträge und Aufsätze’ (‘Letters and Essays’).
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December 4, 2012
Gestell [gesh-tell] is a German word used by philosopher Martin Heidegger to describe what lies behind or beneath modern technology. This concept was applied to Heidegger’s exposition of the essence of technology.
The conclusion regarding the essence of technology was that technology is fundamentally enframing. As such, the essence of technology is Gestell. Indeed, ‘Gestell, literally ‘framing,’ is an all-encompassing view of technology, not as a means to an end, but rather a mode of human existence.’
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December 3, 2012
Deprogramming is an attempt to force a person to abandon allegiance to a religious, political, economic, or social group. The person in question is may be taken against his/her will, which has led to controversies over freedom of religion, kidnapping, and civil rights, as well as the violence which is sometimes involved. Deprogramming is often commissioned by relatives, including parents of adult offspring, who object to someone’s membership in an organization or group.
It was started in the 1970s in the United States by Ted Patrick (widely considered to be the ‘father of deprogramming’). In addition to the ethics and legality, the efficacy of deprogramming has been questioned by scholars, as well as by members of the Christian countercult movement. Similar actions, when done without force, are called ‘exit counseling.’ Sometimes the word deprogramming is used in a wider (and/or ironic or humorous sense), to mean the freeing of someone (often oneself) from any previously uncritically assimilated idea.
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December 3, 2012
Mind control (also known as brainwashing, coercive persuasion, or menticide) refers to the use of unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator(s), often to the detriment of the person being manipulated. The term has been applied to any tactic, psychological or otherwise, which can be seen as subverting an individual’s sense of control over their own thinking, behavior, emotions or decision making.
Theories of brainwashing and of mind control were originally developed to explain how totalitarian regimes appeared to succeed systematically in indoctrinating prisoners of war through propaganda and torture techniques. These theories were later expanded and modified by psychologists including Margaret Singer, to explain a wider range of phenomena, especially conversions to cults (new religious movements, NRMs). A third-generation theory proposed by sociologist Ben Zablocki focused on the utilization of mind control to retain members of NRMs.
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December 3, 2012
Love bombing is a tactic often employed by cults (or any religious, political or other group of like-minded individuals) as a way of luring prospective members. Current members typically ‘love bomb’ potential or desired new recruits by showering them with affection, praise, and offers of friendship.
Cult awareness experts warn that this seemingly kind and welcoming practice is often the first step in a mind control (‘brainwashing’) process that leads to religious conversion or involvement with a group that may be harmful to its membership or to society. While most people can discern such cynical ploys from honest offers of fellowship, anyone caught at a vulnerable time in his or her life (following a divorce, death, loss of job or any major life change) or suffering from insecurities could fall under the spell of a charismatic leader and the true believers who inevitably surround such a person.
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December 2, 2012
INTJ (introversion, intuition, thinking, judgment) is an abbreviation used in the publications of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to refer to one of the sixteen personality types. INTJs are one of the rarest of the sixteen personality types, and account for about 1–4% of the population.
The MBTI assessment was developed from the work of prominent psychiatrist Carl G. Jung in his book ‘Psychological Types.’ Jung proposed a psychological typology based on the theories of cognitive functions that he developed through his clinical observations. From Jung’s work, others developed psychological typologies.
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November 29, 2012
Cyborg anthropology is the discipline that studies the interaction between humanity and technology from an anthropological perspective. The topic originated as a sub-focus group within the American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting in 1993. The sub-group was very closely related to two other academic disciplines, STS (Science, technology and society) and the Society for the Social Studies of Science.
Historian and feminist Donna Haraway’s 1985 ‘Cyborg Manifesto’ could be considered the founding document of cyborg anthropology by first exploring the philosophical and sociological ramifications of the term. More recently, Amber Case has been responsible for setting up the Cyborg Anthropology Wiki.
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November 20, 2012
In Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism, commodity fetishism is theory that objects are imagined to dictate the social activities that produce them. When the social relationships among people are expressed with objectified economic relationships, the subjective, abstract aspects of economic value are transformed into objective, real things that people believe have intrinsic value (reification).
In a capitalist society, social relations between people—who makes what, who works for whom, the production-time for a commodity, et cetera—are perceived as economic relations among objects, that is, how valuable a given commodity is when compared to another commodity. Therefore, the market exchange of commodities masks the true economic character of the human relations of production, between the worker and the capitalist.
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November 20, 2012
A fetish (from Latin ‘facticius,’ ‘artificial’ and ‘facere,’ ‘to make’) is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a man-made object that has power over others. Essentially, fetishism is the emic (intracultural) attribution of inherent value or powers to an object. Initially, the Portuguese developed the concept of fetishism to refer to the objects used in religious cults by West African natives.
The concept was popularized in Europe circa 1757, when French scholar Charles de Brosses used it in comparing West African religion to the magical aspects of ancient Egyptian religion. Later, French philosopher Auguste Comte employed the concept in his theory of the evolution of religion, wherein he posited fetishism as the earliest (most primitive) stage, followed by polytheism and monotheism.
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