{"id":128501,"date":"2015-11-04T05:58:17","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T12:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/04\/when-machines-are-asked-to-make-ethical-decisions.html"},"modified":"2015-11-04T23:02:21","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T06:02:21","slug":"when-machines-are-asked-to-make-ethical-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/04\/when-machines-are-asked-to-make-ethical-decisions.html","title":{"rendered":"When machines are asked to make ethical decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Autonomous cars are going to bring to a head some interesting ethical issues — including the idea that people agree broadly on ethical concerns, but tend to differ — a lot — when it comes to specific circumstances.<\/p>\n

With human drivers, we sort of give this a pass. In the heat of the moment, if a person makes the wrong decision then we tend to forgive them. We know that people make mistakes, make erroneous snap judgments. If I swerve to avoid the dog in the road that I see, but don't realize I'm turning into a couple of children, or off of a cliff, people will tut-tut, feel sorry for me, but not ascribe any particular malice or ethical flaw.<\/p>\n

But if a computer driving a car does that, or decides that going over the cliff (killing the driver) is better than hitting a kid in the road, or that swerving to avoid a kid is okay even if it kills an elderly person — or any other such permutation — then people are going to get into some very<\/i> sharp arguments (and law suits) over those rules.<\/p>\n

It's going to be fascinating to watch — but not much fun to be involved in.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\n
\n<\/a>
\nOf Cats And Cliffs: The Ethical Dilemmas Of The Driverless Car<\/a><\/span>
\nWe make decisions every day based on risk – perhaps running across a road to catch a bus if the road is quiet, but not if it’s busy. Sometimes these decisions must be made in an instant, in the face of dire circumstances: a child runs out in front of your car, but there are other dangers to either side, say a cat and a cliff. How do you decide? Do you risk your own safety to protect that of others?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Autonomous cars are going to bring to a head some interesting ethical issues — including the idea that people agree broadly on ethical concerns, but tend to differ — a lot — when it comes to specific circumstances. With human drivers, we sort of give this a pass. In the heat of the moment, if … Continue reading “When machines are asked to make ethical decisions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,5,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-cars","category-hi-tech"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51486,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/17\/on-self-driving-cars-and-trolley-problems.html","url_meta":{"origin":128501,"position":0},"title":"On Self-Driving Cars and Trolley Problems","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Jun-15 5:01am","format":false,"excerpt":"Nice analysis by Yonatan Zunger of an apparent ethical conundrum that really isn't -- it's a revelation-of-ethics conundrum. What will an autonomous vehicle do if faced with killing a pedestrian in the road vs. swerving into a tree? I don't know -- but we don't seem to worry about that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130943,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/23\/ethical-cars-for-thee-but-not-for-me.html","url_meta":{"origin":128501,"position":1},"title":"Ethical cars for thee but not for me","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 23-Jun-16 8:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Surveys indicate people favor autonomous cars that will sacrifice their passenger for pedestrians... but less so if they are the passenger in question, and even less if it's a loved one. People want other people\u2019s self-driving cars to keep pedestrians safe The new NIMBY: Should self-driving cars sacrifice a few\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":920,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/02\/survey_says.html","url_meta":{"origin":128501,"position":2},"title":"Survey says …!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 2-Nov-01 10:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"Being someone who (a) enjoys voicing his opinion, and (b) is married to a statistician, I feel an ethical obligation to respond to phone and web-based surveys. Even when I...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15195,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/stewardship-of-creation.html","url_meta":{"origin":128501,"position":3},"title":"Stewardship of Creation","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-Jul-09 10:57am","format":false,"excerpt":"In an ideal world, \"animal rescue\" would be something done by Superman regarding a cat being stuck in a tree. In our real world, \"animal rescue\" means saving animals from neglect, abandonment, and mistreatment. As a confirmed carnivore, I'm not to going to address consumption of animals for food, except\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21375,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/29\/an-intellectual-property-ethical-query-for-my-readers.html","url_meta":{"origin":128501,"position":4},"title":"An Intellectual Property ethical query for my readers","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 29-Jun-11 9:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"If a Kindle owner already owns a hardcopy of a book, and, if pressed, would just re-read that hardcopy (vs. buying, often for even higher prices than that hardcopy, an eBook version), is one doing any ethical harm by instead finding some unauthorized bitstreamed eBook copy of said book for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Intellectual Property"","block_context":{"text":"Intellectual Property","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-intellectual-property"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/books2-166x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2137,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/03\/05\/on_the_other_ha.html","url_meta":{"origin":128501,"position":5},"title":"On the other hand …","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-Mar-02 9:11am","format":false,"excerpt":"Maybe I won't need Katherine some day ... There's been a long-standing ethical argument over a hypothetical fat pill. If you could just take a pill and lose weight, without...","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/health"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128507,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128501\/revisions\/128507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}