555 research outputs found
The Dawning of the Ethics of Environmental Robots
Environmental scientists and engineers have been exploring research and monitoring applications of robotics, as well as exploring ways of integrating robotics into ecosystems to aid in responses to accelerating environmental, climatic,and biodiversity changes. These emerging applications of robots and other autonomous technologies present novel ethical and practical challenges. Yet, the critical applications of robots for environmental research, engineering, protection and remediation have received next to no attention in the ethics of robotics literature to date. This paper seeks to fill that void, and promote the study of environmental robotics. It provides key resources for further critical examination of the issues environmental robots present by explaining and differentiating the sorts of environmental robotics that exist to date and identifying unique conceptual, ethical, and practical issues they present
Robotic Monitoring of Habitats: the Natural Intelligence Approach
In this paper, we first discuss the challenges related to habitat monitoring and review possible robotic solutions. Then, we propose a framework to perform terrestrial habitat monitoring exploiting the mobility of legged robotic systems. The idea is to provide the robot with the Natural Intelligence introduced as the combination of the environment in which it moves, the intelligence embedded in the design of its body, and the algorithms composing its mind. This approach aims to solve the challenges of deploying robots in real natural environments, such as irregular and rough terrains, long-lasting operations, and unexpected collisions, with the final objective of assisting humans in assessing the habitat conservation status. Finally, we present examples of robotic monitoring of habitats in four different environments: forests, grasslands, dunes, and screes
Robotic Monitoring of Habitats: The Natural Intelligence Approach
In this paper, we first discuss the challenges related to habitat monitoring and review possible robotic solutions. Then, we propose a framework to perform terrestrial habitat monitoring exploiting the mobility of legged robotic systems. The idea is to provide the robot with the Natural Intelligence introduced as the combination of the environment in which it moves, the intelligence embedded in the design of its body, and the algorithms composing its mind. This approach aims to solve the challenges of deploying robots in real natural environments, such as irregular and rough terrains, long-lasting operations, and unexpected collisions, with the final objective of assisting humans in assessing the habitat conservation status. Finally, we present examples of robotic monitoring of habitats in four different environments: forests, grasslands, dunes, and screes
Critical Discourses on Technology in the Era of the Anthropocene
This paper attempts to unravel and explore the stark contradiction
between the quest for technological advancement and the struggle for
human welfare and well-being. In the frame of Hegel’s master and slave
dialectic, the author tries to present the notions of humanity and
technology as thesis and antitheses by which the dawning synthesis of
technological sensitivity to nature and an ecologically friendly human
innovation and emancipation can be made possible. The paper draws
heavily from the concepts introduced by notable philosophers, such as,
Bernard Stiegler, Donna Haraway, N. Katherine Hayes, Andrew
Feenberg, Douglas Kellner, Herbert Marcuse, George Lukacs, Georg
Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel, Karl Marx, Martin Heidegger, Karl Popper,
Aldo Leopold, and Enrique Dussel. Out from the brilliant concepts of
these thinkers, altogether their ideas had served as the building blocks
in tracing the origin, nature, history, development, and the future of
both the humankind and technology, and its impact to the natural
ecology. The author attempts to work out a coherent synthesis of these
prevailing thinkers. Their ideas aimed to lead, support, enhance, or give
way to the possibility of the notion of an ecologically, environmentally,
nature and human-friendly technology
Artificial intelligence, Digital Single Market and the proposal of a right to fair and reasonable inferences: a legal issue between ethics and techniques
The article discusses the ethical and technical consequences of Artificial intelligence (hereinafter, A.I) applications and their usage of the European Union data protection legal framework to enable citizens to defend themselves against them. This goal is under the larger European Union Digital Single Market policy, which has concerns about how this subject correlates with personal data protection. The article has four sections. The first one introduces the main issue by describing the importance of AI applications in the contemporary world scenario. The second one describes some fundamental concepts about AI. The third section has an analysis of the ongoing policies for AI in the European Union and the Council of Europe proposal about ethics applicable to AI in the judicial systems. The fourth section is the conclusion, which debates the current legal mechanisms for citizens protection against fully automated decisions, based on European Union Law and in particular the General Data Protection Regulation. The conclusion will be that European Union Law is still under construction when it comes to providing effective protection to its citizens against automated inferences that are unfair or unreasonable
Does Evolution Explain Human Nature?
Compiles short essays by twelve scientists and scholars on how well the theory of evolution explains human nature. Separate link includes video of a panel discussion with three scientists
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