Thread by @eripsa

@Boring_AI @David_Gunkel @tonyjprescott @NoelSharkey @alan_winfield @maria_axente @DorotheaBaur @EmergTechEthics @IEthics @RobMcCargow @ShannonVallor @MachineEthics @ProceedingsIEEE @aimeevanrobot Machines are destroyed all the time, yes. What's interesting, new, and worth studying is the pattern of behavior around robots *specifically* as a social class. Again, the term "bot" has become a slur in 2019. This wasn't the case in 1999.

@Boring_AI @David_Gunkel @tonyjprescott @NoelSharkey @alan_winfield @maria_axente @DorotheaBaur @EmergTechEthics @IEthics @RobMcCargow @ShannonVallor @MachineEthics @ProceedingsIEEE @aimeevanrobot Arguing "robots are no different from toasters" in the context of dramatically changing social attitudes towards robots (and relatively stagnant attitudes towards toasters) is being deliberately obtuse.

@Boring_AI @David_Gunkel @tonyjprescott @NoelSharkey @alan_winfield @maria_axente @DorotheaBaur @EmergTechEthics @IEthics @RobMcCargow @ShannonVallor @MachineEthics @ProceedingsIEEE @aimeevanrobot Unless there's been some drama in the toaster scene I'm not privy to?

@Boring_AI @David_Gunkel @tonyjprescott @NoelSharkey @alan_winfield @maria_axente @DorotheaBaur @EmergTechEthics @IEthics @RobMcCargow @ShannonVallor @MachineEthics @ProceedingsIEEE @aimeevanrobot Searching the news reveals no toaster-related drama of note.

Specifically, people are not bullying toasters or accusing toasters of stealing elections. However...

@Boring_AI @David_Gunkel @tonyjprescott @NoelSharkey @alan_winfield @maria_axente @DorotheaBaur @EmergTechEthics @IEthics @RobMcCargow @ShannonVallor @MachineEthics @ProceedingsIEEE @aimeevanrobot I did run across a recent legal theory paper from 2017 titled "When Toasters Attack". Unsurprisingly, the paper is about IoT security issues; in other words: smart toasters.

So I concede that robots are like toasters when toasters are literally robots.

heinonline.org/HOL/Page?colle…

@Boring_AI @David_Gunkel @tonyjprescott @NoelSharkey @alan_winfield @maria_axente @DorotheaBaur @EmergTechEthics @IEthics @RobMcCargow @ShannonVallor @MachineEthics @ProceedingsIEEE @aimeevanrobot Would you like any toast?