“Autonomous robots” have some people very spooked. But what does it mean to be an autonomous, decision-making entity in the first place?
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Posted by
chr15 on 03/05 at 03:46 AM
interesting post and by and large I think your delineation of emerging robot(ic)s as tools and not autonomous, and in a way extensions of the autonomous, is correct but I do get confused by one point which i thought you were going to address but didn't.
What is the status of your mouse if it were in a lab? Lets assume it is not under duress and won't be abused just bred and monitored until it dies naturally. It never knows it is confined to a lab. Could it be the paradoxical autonomous tool? And if it is a tool, under your logic would it be an extension of the doctor/researcher?
Perhaps, we didn't both reach this line of thought because where as you believe that the fundemental unit of autonomy is the self I believe that the autonomous cannot be a single unit but must be a social aggregate, a group of 2 or more entities making their own decisions and lifeways without external coercion.
To illustrate, you say:
<block>I think that an "ideal" ethical state with regard to personal autonomy is the one in which coercion is minimized, and in which the individual is has access to whatever information she might need to make maximally-informed decisions. </block>
To be autonomous, with access with to needed information, a self needs an other to provide that information. I know the objection, information can be environmental, ie this fruit looks ripe so i should eat it, but as a child i was taught by an other that the fruit is good to eat. Which leads to the point that non-coercion must be social as well. To not be forced into action by hunger I must be tought what to eat. Autonomy must be social.
Perhaps the (unabused) lab mouse and the doctor then form an autonomous pair, informing and feeding each other. Maybe they are extensions of eachother. Seperate but connected in a mutually beneficial autonomy. (the mouse was bred into existence by the doctor after all).
What does this mean for autonomous robots? well, i don't know much about the state of the art. but i believe robots will never be autonomous without an other, without being part of a social constellation. they will need programmer, user and other robots. this will make them even harder to spot if they ever truly get minds of their own
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