Abstract. While modern states may never cease to wage war against one another, they have recogniz... more Abstract. While modern states may never cease to wage war against one another, they have recognized moral restrictions on how they conduct those wars. These “rules of war ” serve several important functions in regulating the organization and behavior of military forces, and shape political debates, negotiations, and public perception. While the world has become somewhat accustomed to the increasing technological sophistication of warfare, it now stands at the verge of a new kind of escalating technology–autonomous robotic soldiers–and with them new pressures to revise the rules of war to accommodate them. This paper will consider the fundamental issues of justice involved in the application of autonomous and semi-autonomous robots in warfare. It begins with a review of just war theory, as articulated by Michael Walzer [1], and considers how robots might fit into the general framework it provides. In so doing it considers how robots, “smart ” bombs, and other autonomous technologies ...
We stand at the cusp of a robotics revolution with the potential to permeate and transform our so... more We stand at the cusp of a robotics revolution with the potential to permeate and transform our social and physical world to an even greater extent than the computer and smartphone revolutions of recent decades. Insofar as we can apply lessons learned from those technological revolutions, and improve on our processes of innovation and mechanisms of regulation, we have an opportunity to shape this emerging revolution towards desirable social goals. Failing to do so will mean abdicating responsibility, and allowing powerful political and commercial interests, and the technocratic values of engineers, to shape the social values that are built into these technologies and which will reshape the social and physical world according to those values.
In United States v. Causby, the Supreme Court conceptualized airspace as a “public highway.” In t... more In United States v. Causby, the Supreme Court conceptualized airspace as a “public highway.” In the same decision, the Court recognized that landowners must be able to “exercise exclusive control of the immediate reaches of the enveloping atmosphere” in order to exercise full enjoyment of their property. The precise boundaries of public and private space have always been contested; however, the lack of clear legal definition of “public space” is increasingly problematic given the growing availability and use of drones. How should the law conceptualize “public space” in relation to drones and robots? Do drones present legitimately new issues for “public space” jurisprudence, or do they simply present issues of scale? Are there micro-airspaces surrounding individuals and special places that merit the recognition of an increased private interest in airspace? In what contexts should the law privatize or enclose portions of the “public highway” in favor of protecting privacy rights? How ...
This paper describes and frames a central ethical issue–the liability problem–facing the regulati... more This paper describes and frames a central ethical issue–the liability problem–facing the regulation of artificial computational agents, including artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic systems, as they become increasingly autonomous, and supersede current capabilities. While it frames the issue in legal terms of liability and culpability, these terms are deeply imbued and interconnected with their ethical and moral correlate–responsibility. In order for society to benefit from advances in AI technology, it will be necessary to develop regulatory policies which manage the risk and liability of deploying systems with increasingly autonomous capabilities. However, current approaches to liability have difficulties when it comes to dealing with autonomous artificial agents because their behavior may be unpredictable to those who create and deploy them, and they will not be proper legal or moral agents. This problem is the motivation for a research project that will explore the fundamen...
This paper considers the ethical challenges facing the development of robotic systems that deploy... more This paper considers the ethical challenges facing the development of robotic systems that deploy violent and lethal force against humans. While the use of violent and lethal force is not usually acceptable for humans or robots, police officers are authorized by the state to use violent and lethal force in certain circumstances in order to keep the peace and protect individuals and the community from an immediate threat. With the increased interest in developing and deploying robots for law enforcement tasks, including robots armed with weapons, the question arises as to how to design human-robot interactions (HRIs) in which violent and lethal force might be among the actions taken by the robot, or whether to preclude such actions altogether. This is what I call the "deadly design problem" for HRI. While it might be possible to design a system to recognize various gestures, such as "Hands up, don't shoot!," there are many more challenging and subtle aspects to the problem of implementing existing legal guidelines for the use of force in law enforcement robots. After examining the key legal and technical challenges of designing interactions involving violence, this paper concludes with some reflections on the ethics of HRI design raised by automating the use of force in policing. In light of the serious challenges in automating violence, it calls upon HRI researchers to adopt a moratorium on designing any robotic systems that deploy violent and lethal force against humans, and to consider ethical codes and laws to prohibit such systems in the future.
This project will enable public oral history archives of audio and video materials to present his... more This project will enable public oral history archives of audio and video materials to present history in a way that makes it more accessible to public web users, students and educators, while allowing historians to present non-linear historical narratives. Through new open source video tools, it will support the intuitive navigation of large media archives. These tools will initially support a project on the oral history of robotics, which includes an existing archive of video interviews with pioneers in the field. Current on-line archives of materials are difficult to navigate and are forced into flat linear structures, while those with search capabilities rarely offer intuitive or accessible interfaces for non-specialists. The envisioned tools will exploit the latest capabilities of HTML5 to present materials (e.g., documents, maps, photos, and webpages and related archival videos) as a video is being viewed and navigate video in non-linear paths.
SMC 2000 Conference Proceedings. 2000 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics. 'Cybernetics Evolving to Systems, Humans, Organizations, and their Complex Interactions' (Cat. No.00CH37166), 2000
SMC'98 Conference Proceedings. 1998 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (Cat. No.98CH36218), 1998
... Journul of the Royal Statistical Society series B, 50(2): 157-224. Lehner, PE &am... more ... Journul of the Royal Statistical Society series B, 50(2): 157-224. Lehner, PE & Zirk, DA (1987). Cognitive factors in user-expert system interaction. ... Proc. Seventh Annual Conference on Evolutionary Programming, March 1998, San Diego, CA. Pearl, J. (1988). ...
Abstract. While modern states may never cease to wage war against one another, they have recogniz... more Abstract. While modern states may never cease to wage war against one another, they have recognized moral restrictions on how they conduct those wars. These “rules of war ” serve several important functions in regulating the organization and behavior of military forces, and shape political debates, negotiations, and public perception. While the world has become somewhat accustomed to the increasing technological sophistication of warfare, it now stands at the verge of a new kind of escalating technology–autonomous robotic soldiers–and with them new pressures to revise the rules of war to accommodate them. This paper will consider the fundamental issues of justice involved in the application of autonomous and semi-autonomous robots in warfare. It begins with a review of just war theory, as articulated by Michael Walzer [1], and considers how robots might fit into the general framework it provides. In so doing it considers how robots, “smart ” bombs, and other autonomous technologies ...
We stand at the cusp of a robotics revolution with the potential to permeate and transform our so... more We stand at the cusp of a robotics revolution with the potential to permeate and transform our social and physical world to an even greater extent than the computer and smartphone revolutions of recent decades. Insofar as we can apply lessons learned from those technological revolutions, and improve on our processes of innovation and mechanisms of regulation, we have an opportunity to shape this emerging revolution towards desirable social goals. Failing to do so will mean abdicating responsibility, and allowing powerful political and commercial interests, and the technocratic values of engineers, to shape the social values that are built into these technologies and which will reshape the social and physical world according to those values.
In United States v. Causby, the Supreme Court conceptualized airspace as a “public highway.” In t... more In United States v. Causby, the Supreme Court conceptualized airspace as a “public highway.” In the same decision, the Court recognized that landowners must be able to “exercise exclusive control of the immediate reaches of the enveloping atmosphere” in order to exercise full enjoyment of their property. The precise boundaries of public and private space have always been contested; however, the lack of clear legal definition of “public space” is increasingly problematic given the growing availability and use of drones. How should the law conceptualize “public space” in relation to drones and robots? Do drones present legitimately new issues for “public space” jurisprudence, or do they simply present issues of scale? Are there micro-airspaces surrounding individuals and special places that merit the recognition of an increased private interest in airspace? In what contexts should the law privatize or enclose portions of the “public highway” in favor of protecting privacy rights? How ...
This paper describes and frames a central ethical issue–the liability problem–facing the regulati... more This paper describes and frames a central ethical issue–the liability problem–facing the regulation of artificial computational agents, including artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic systems, as they become increasingly autonomous, and supersede current capabilities. While it frames the issue in legal terms of liability and culpability, these terms are deeply imbued and interconnected with their ethical and moral correlate–responsibility. In order for society to benefit from advances in AI technology, it will be necessary to develop regulatory policies which manage the risk and liability of deploying systems with increasingly autonomous capabilities. However, current approaches to liability have difficulties when it comes to dealing with autonomous artificial agents because their behavior may be unpredictable to those who create and deploy them, and they will not be proper legal or moral agents. This problem is the motivation for a research project that will explore the fundamen...
This paper considers the ethical challenges facing the development of robotic systems that deploy... more This paper considers the ethical challenges facing the development of robotic systems that deploy violent and lethal force against humans. While the use of violent and lethal force is not usually acceptable for humans or robots, police officers are authorized by the state to use violent and lethal force in certain circumstances in order to keep the peace and protect individuals and the community from an immediate threat. With the increased interest in developing and deploying robots for law enforcement tasks, including robots armed with weapons, the question arises as to how to design human-robot interactions (HRIs) in which violent and lethal force might be among the actions taken by the robot, or whether to preclude such actions altogether. This is what I call the "deadly design problem" for HRI. While it might be possible to design a system to recognize various gestures, such as "Hands up, don't shoot!," there are many more challenging and subtle aspects to the problem of implementing existing legal guidelines for the use of force in law enforcement robots. After examining the key legal and technical challenges of designing interactions involving violence, this paper concludes with some reflections on the ethics of HRI design raised by automating the use of force in policing. In light of the serious challenges in automating violence, it calls upon HRI researchers to adopt a moratorium on designing any robotic systems that deploy violent and lethal force against humans, and to consider ethical codes and laws to prohibit such systems in the future.
This project will enable public oral history archives of audio and video materials to present his... more This project will enable public oral history archives of audio and video materials to present history in a way that makes it more accessible to public web users, students and educators, while allowing historians to present non-linear historical narratives. Through new open source video tools, it will support the intuitive navigation of large media archives. These tools will initially support a project on the oral history of robotics, which includes an existing archive of video interviews with pioneers in the field. Current on-line archives of materials are difficult to navigate and are forced into flat linear structures, while those with search capabilities rarely offer intuitive or accessible interfaces for non-specialists. The envisioned tools will exploit the latest capabilities of HTML5 to present materials (e.g., documents, maps, photos, and webpages and related archival videos) as a video is being viewed and navigate video in non-linear paths.
SMC 2000 Conference Proceedings. 2000 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics. 'Cybernetics Evolving to Systems, Humans, Organizations, and their Complex Interactions' (Cat. No.00CH37166), 2000
SMC'98 Conference Proceedings. 1998 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (Cat. No.98CH36218), 1998
... Journul of the Royal Statistical Society series B, 50(2): 157-224. Lehner, PE &am... more ... Journul of the Royal Statistical Society series B, 50(2): 157-224. Lehner, PE & Zirk, DA (1987). Cognitive factors in user-expert system interaction. ... Proc. Seventh Annual Conference on Evolutionary Programming, March 1998, San Diego, CA. Pearl, J. (1988). ...
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Papers by Peter M Asaro