Artificial morality: Making of the artificial moral agents

Abstract: Artificial Morality is a new, emerging interdisciplinary field that centres around the idea of creating artificial moral agents, or AMAs, by implementing moral competence in artificial systems. AMAs are ought to be autonomous agents capable of socially correct judgements and ethically functional behaviour. This request for moral machines comes from the changes in everyday practice, where artificial systems are being frequently used in a variety of situations from home help and elderly care purposes to banking and court algorithms. It is therefore important to create reliable and responsible machines based on the same ethical principles that society demands from people. New challenges in creating such agents appear. There are philosophical questions about a machine’s potential to be an agent, or mora l agent, in the first place. Then comes the problem of social acceptance of such machines, regardless of their theoretic agency status. As a result of efforts to resolve this problem, there are insinuations of needed additional psychological (emotional and cogn itive) competence in cold moral machines. What makes this endeavour of developing AMAs even harder is the complexity of the technical, engineering aspect of their creation. Implementation approaches such as top- down, bottom-up and hybrid approach aim to find the best way of developing fully moral agents, but they encounter their own problems throughout this effort

Artificial morality: Making of the artificial moral agents

Artificial Morality is a new, emerging interdisciplinary field that centres around the idea of creating artificial moral agents, or AMAs, by implementing moral competence in artificial systems. AMAs are ought to be autonomous agents capable of socially correct judgements and ethically functional behaviour. This request for moral machines comes from the changes in everyday practice, where artificial systems are being frequently used in a variety of situations from home help and elderly care purposes to banking and court algorithms. It is therefore important to create reliable and responsible machines based on the same ethical principles that society demands from people. New challenges in creating such agents appear. There are philosophical questions about a machine's potential to be an agent, or moral agent, in the first place. Then comes the problem of social acceptance of such machines, regardless of their theoretic agency status. As a result of efforts to resolve this problem, there are insinuations of needed additional psychological (emotional and cognitive) competence in cold moral machines. What makes this endeavour of developing AMAs even harder is the complexity of the technical, engineering aspect of their creation. Implementation approaches such as top-down, bottom-up and hybrid approach aim to find the best way of developing fully moral agents, but they encounter their own problems throughout this effort

Industry 4.0 and Lean Six Sigma Integration in Manufacturing: A Literature Review, an Integrated Framework and Proposed Research Perspectives

This paper explores the literature on lean management (LM), Six Sigma (SS), Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and their relationship. A systematic literature review (SLR) combined with bibliometric analysis was conducted to identify, select and evaluate articles and was supported by content analysis to classify papers into group discussed clusters. A total of 134 articles were retrieved from relevant databases and publisher engines between 2011 and June 2022. The analysis of these articles enabled us to identify the impact of Industry 4.0 technologies on Lean Six Sigma; the relationship between LM, SS and Industry 4.0 and the implications of their combination on operational excellence. The results show that while a majority of researchers consider Industry 4.0 to be a driver of LSS and a prerequisite for helping companies access the data and analytics needed, others find them to be complementary and synergistic. Similarly, various authors support the idea that LSS could be a facilitator of Industry 4.0. This study provides an overview of the main research streams in this field and its shortcomings and presents an LSS4.0 framework integrating lean six sigma and Industry 4 which will be of great value to academics and practitioners working in this area

Digital futures: e-commerce and sustainable development.

This report comprises a critical commentary and appraisal of my DProf project "Digital Futures: e-commerce and sustainable development". It should be viewed alongside the evidence of achievement from the project. There are six items of evidence contained in the project folder alongside this report: i. A brochure produced for the project launch on 1 February 2000 2. "Mind over Matter" -a pamphlet by Charles Leadbeater published part-way through the project in September 2000 (Leadbeater. 2000) 3. "Dot-com ethics" -a pamphlet by James Wilsdon published part-way through the project in January 2001 (Wilsdon. 2001) 4. A brochure produced for the final project conference on 1 March 2001 5. A summary reportwhich draws out the cross-cutting conclusions and recommendations (Wilsdon & Miller. 2001) 6. "Digital Futures: living in a dot-com world"- a book containing the full research findings of the project (ed. Wilsdon. 2001) The overarching aim of the Digital Futures project was to investigate the complex web of issues surrounding e-commerce and sustainable development, and recommend ways in which government and business could maximise the sustainability benefits, and minimise the costs, of the emerging digital economy. The project drew together a consortium of government departments, companies, think-tanks and research organisations. Its formal activities ran from 1 October 1999 to i March 2001, and consisted of three main phases: Phase 1 (i October iQQQ- f1 January 2000) -A detailed scoping paper was prepared on the key issues relating to e-commercea nd sustainable development. -A consortium of think-tanks and research organisations was established to undertake research into the various aspects of the debate. -Fifteen corporate partners were recruited to support the project, and participate in the research process. -UK Government support and funding was obtained for Phases 2&3. Phase 2 (1 February- 15 September 2000) -Each of the eight research organisations was commissioned to produce a detailed paper on a particular theme. -Detailed research was carried out using a variety of methodological approaches (desk-based analysis, interviews, opinion polling etc.) -Project partners in government and business were actively involved in the research to ensure it reflected a diversity of views. Phase 3 (i6 September 2000 - 1 March 2001) -A series of workshops were held with project stakeholders, to discuss the research findings of Phase 2. -The eight research reports were edited into a book. -A summary report was written, drawing out the main conclusions and recommendations. -A one-day conference was held on 1 March 2001 for 200 decision-makers from government, business, academia and the voluntary sector. My role within the project was that of overall co-ordinator and editor of the book and summary report. I was also the lead researcher on one of the eight research themes. Whilst the project was underway, and in the year that has elapsed since its formal completion, I have been reflecting on the lessons learned. This report is a critical commentary based on that process of reflection. It consists of an introduction to the project, an outline of its aims, objectives and methodology, an account of the project's main activities, and full details of the project's results and conclusions. The main outcomes of the project were a book and summary report (see evidence of achievement), which offered the first comprehensive analysis of the relationship between e-commerce and sustainable development. The third significant outcome of the project was a one-day conference exploring these issues. The project also led to a range of follow-up research and practical activities, which are detailed in the final chapter. The final chapter also includes a reflection of the impact the project has had on my sphere of professional activity, and on myself as a researcher and practitioner

New Foundation in the Sciences: Physics without sweeping infinities under the rug

It is widely known among the Frontiers of physics, that “sweeping under the rug” practice has been quite the norm rather than exception. In other words, the leading paradigms have strong tendency to be hailed as the only game in town. For example, renormalization group theory was hailed as cure in order to solve infinity problem in QED theory. For instance, a quote from Richard Feynman goes as follows: “What the three Nobel Prize winners did, in the words of Feynman, was to get rid of the infinities in the calculations. The infinities are still there, but now they can be skirted around . . . We have designed a method for sweeping them under the rug. [1] And Paul Dirac himself also wrote with similar tune: “Hence most physicists are very satisfied with the situation. They say: Quantum electrodynamics is a good theory, and we do not have to worry about it any more. I must say that I am very dissatisfied with the situation, because this so-called good theory does involve neglecting infinities which appear in its equations, neglecting them in an arbitrary way. This is just not sensible mathematics. Sensible mathematics involves neglecting a quantity when it turns out to be small—not neglecting it just because it is infinitely great and you do not want it!”[2] Similarly, dark matter and dark energy were elevated as plausible way to solve the crisis in prevalent Big Bang cosmology. That is why we choose a theme here: New Foundations in the Sciences, in order to emphasize the necessity to introduce a new set of approaches in the Sciences, be it Physics, Cosmology, Consciousness etc

Law in the present future : approaching the legal imaginary of smart cities with science (and) fiction

This doctoral research concerns smart cities, describing digital solutions and social issues related to their innovative technologies, adopted models, and major projects around the world. The many perspectives mentioned in it were identified by online tools used for the textual analysis of two databases that were built from relevant publications on the main subject by authors coming from media and academia. Expected legal elements emerged from the applied process, such as privacy, security, transparency, participation, accountability, and governance. A general review was produced on the information available about the public policies of Big Data in the two municipal cases of Rio de Janeiro and Montréal, and their regulation in the Brazilian and Canadian contexts. The combined approaches from science and literature were explored to reflect on the normative concerns represented by the global challenges and local risks brought by urban surveillance, climate change, and other neoliberal conditions. Cyberpunk Science Fiction reveals itself useful for engaging with the shared problems that need to be faced in the present time, all involving democracy. The results achieved reveal that this work was, in fact, about the complex network of practices and senses between (post)modern law and the imaginary of the future.Cette recherche doctorale centrée sur les villes intelligentes met en évidence les solutions numériques et les questionnements sociétaux qui ont trait aux technologies innovantes, ainsi qu’aux principaux modèles et projets développés autour d’elles à travers le monde. Des perspectives multiples en lien avec ces développements ont été identifiées à l’aide d’outils en ligne qui ont permis l’analyse textuelle de deux bases de données comprenant des publications scientifiques et des écrits médiatiques. De ce processus analytique ont émergé des éléments juridiques relatifs aux questions de vie privée, de sécurité, de transparence, de participation, d’imputabilité et de gouvernance. De plus, à partir de ces informations a été réalisée une revue des politiques publiques relatives aux mégadonnées dans les villes de Rio de Janeiro et de Montréal, ainsi que des réglementations nationales du Canada et du Brésil en lien avec ce sujet. Finalement, à travers l’exploration d’écrits scientifiques et fictionnels de la littérature, les principaux enjeux normatifs soulevés localement et mondialement par la surveillance urbaine, les changements climatiques et les politiques néolibérales ont pu être mis à jour. Le courant cyberpunk de la science-fiction s’est avéré particulièrement utile pour révéler les principaux problèmes politiques, en lien avec la préservation de la démocratie, auxquelles sont confrontées nos sociétés présentement. Les résultats de la recherche démontrent finalement la présence d’un réseau de pratiques et de significations entre le droit (post)moderne et les représentations imaginaires du futur

Competencies and problems of poor and non-poor American emerging adults

Developmental perspectives emphasize understanding the etiology of offending across the life course and in relation to other analogous behaviors (i.e. mental illness, substance use, academic failure, social problems). Two prominent DLC theories---Moffitt\u27s (1993) Developmental Taxonomy and Sampson and Laub\u27s (1993) Age Graded Theory (AGT) of Informal Social Control---offer differing perspectives on the etiology of offending. Moffitt (1993) contends that four types of offenders can be identified in the general population based on various individual deficits, family problems and analogous behaviors. Sampson and Laub (1993) argue offending is a consequence of opportunities to offend and the inability of society to exert proper control over individuals\u27 hedonistic desires. I use the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to compare the efficacy of the two theories for explaining offending among contemporary American emerging adults aged 18-25 years old. Consistent with developmental perspectives, factors affecting life circumstances of emerging adults are also examined as risk (poverty) and buffers (neighborhood cohesion, economic emerging adults exhibit low levels of offending and analogous problems. Yet, 55% of emerging adults in the low offending group (exhibiting normal behavior) reported driving under the influence of alcohol in the past year. Thus, substance related offending appears to be a common phenomenon among emerging adults. Being very poor is associated with more than twice the relative risk of being in a multiple problem profile that includes high levels of offending and serious concomitant problems such as mental illness, substance dependence, arrests and academic failure. The belief that religion is important---but not church attendance, economic supports, or neighborhood cohesion---protects emerging adults from offending, analogous problems, and problematic overall functioning, regardless of economic status. I found support for a number of the propositions shared by AGT and the Developmental Taxonomy. However, because of its inability to account for between individual differences in severity and types of offending there is less support for AGT than for the Developmental Taxonomy. Implications for future theoretical elaboration and advancing the study of offending among American emerging adults are discussed

Ageing with Smartphones in Urban Italy

‘Who am I at this (st)age? Where am I and where should I be, and how and where should I live?’ These questions, which individuals ask themselves throughout their lives, are among the central themes of this book, which presents an anthropological account of the everyday experiences of age and ageing in an inner-city neighbourhood in Milan, and in places and spaces beyond.Ageing with Smartphones in Urban Italy explores ageing and digital technologies amidst a backdrop of rapid global technological innovation, including mHealth (mobile health) and smart cities, and a number of wider socio-economic and technological transformations that have brought about significant changes in how people live, work and retire, and how they communicate and care for each other. Based on 16 months of urban digital ethnographic research in Milan, the smartphone is shown to be a ‘constant companion’ in, of and for contemporary life. It accompanies people throughout the day and night, and through individual and collective experiences of movement, change and rupture. Smartphone practices tap into and reflect the moral anxieties of the present moment, while posing questions related to life values and purpose, identities and belonging, privacy and sociability. Through her extensive investigation, Shireen Walton argues that ageing with smartphones in this contemporary urban Italian context is about living with ambiguity, change and contradiction, as well as developing curiosities about a changing world, our changing selves, and changing relationships with and to others. Ageing with smartphones is about figuring out how best to live together, differently

A mentoring model of leadership development in improving the self-perceived quality of leadership teams at United Church of God

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1900/thumbnail.jp