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Submission + - Ethical trap: robot paralysed by choice of who to save (newscientist.com) 1

wabrandsma writes: From New Scientist:

Can a robot learn right from wrong? Attempts to imbue robots, self-driving cars and military machines with a sense of ethics reveal just how hard this is

In an experiment, Alan Winfield and his colleagues programmed a robot to prevent other automatons – acting as proxies for humans – from falling into a hole. This is a simplified version of Isaac Asimov's fictional First Law of Robotics – a robot must not allow a human being to come to harm.

At first, the robot was successful in its task. As a human proxy moved towards the hole, the robot rushed in to push it out of the path of danger. But when the team added a second human proxy rolling toward the hole at the same time, the robot was forced to choose. Sometimes, it managed to save one human while letting the other perish; a few times it even managed to save both. But in 14 out of 33 trials, the robot wasted so much time fretting over its decision that both humans fell into the hole.

Winfield describes his robot as an "ethical zombie" that has no choice but to behave as it does. Though it may save others according to a programmed code of conduct, it doesn't understand the reasoning behind its actions. Winfield admits he once thought it was not possible for a robot to make ethical choices for itself. Today, he says, "my answer is: I have no idea".

As robots integrate further into our everyday lives, this question will need to be answered. A self-driving car, for example, may one day have to weigh the safety of its passengers against the risk of harming other motorists or pedestrians. It may be very difficult to program robots with rules for such encounters.

Comment Re:Replacement Organs (Score 1) 75

I appreciate the offer, but I'm really not qualified. My interest is of the avid armchair variety. As I understand it, the dialysate is the key to making it work. Previous experiments achieved some removal of urea but it wasn't adequate or it caused electrolyte imbalances. In all forms of dialysis, it's something that could easily be mixed up at home but for the requirement of a sterile solution for hemo or peritoneal dialysis.

Comment Re:A solution in search of a problem... (Score 1) 326

You'd be surprised how much use can be made of 30 minutes of information. Also, in the absence of an accident, the information you mentioned cannot determine if anyone was actually put at risk. Practically no car has GPS connected with control positions and few record 30 minutes.

Will legacy cars have an automatic out since the recorded information won't be there?

How about if the black box malfunctions or "malfunctions"

Submission + - Comcast Tells Customers to Stop Using Tor Browser (deepdotweb.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Comcast agents have reportedly contacted customers who use Tor, a web browser that is designed to protect the user’s privacy while online, and said their service can get terminated if they don’t stop using Tor. According to Deep.Dot.Web, one of those calls included a Comcast customer service agent named Jeremy...

Comment Re:You have all been trained to accept this as nor (Score 1) 286

In this case, it is a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act (look up a few posts). That act is what keeps the military from doing civilian law enforcement. It ran afoul of it because an NCIS agent did a search on civilians.

The perp isn't terribly sympathetic in this case but the act is very important and calls for strict protection.

Comment Re:A solution in search of a problem... (Score 1) 326

First, your 'freebie' is ruinous to some people (we're talking living in a shelter losing the kids sort of ruinous). The second is ruinous to nearly anyone.

So don't do it, you say. Fine as soon as cops start only writing fair and just tickets without quotas AND as soon as traffic court runs the kangaroos out and takes the right to a fair trial seriously.

Until; those very unlikely things happen, perhaps a court ordered technological solution with NO fine is more appropriate.

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