What computers still can't do: a critique of artificial reason
What computers still can't do: a critique of artificial reason
Robot: mere machine to transcendent mind
Robot: mere machine to transcendent mind
Designing Sociable Robots
Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
Darwin among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence
Darwin among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence
Robo Sapiens: Evolution of a New Species
Robo Sapiens: Evolution of a New Species
Socially Intelligent Agents: Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots
Socially Intelligent Agents: Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots
Development of an Autonomous Quadruped Robot for Robot Entertainment
Autonomous Robots - Special issue on autonomous agents
Ethics and Information Technology
Robot Companions: MentorBots & Beyond
Robot Companions: MentorBots & Beyond
Ethics and Information Technology
On the Ethical Quandaries of a Practicing Roboticist: A First-Hand Look
Proceedings of the 2008 conference on Current Issues in Computing and Philosophy
Communications of the ACM
Robot caregivers: harbingers of expanded freedom for all?
Ethics and Information Technology
Experience centred design for a robotic eating aid
Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Human-robot interaction
The effect of monitoring by cameras and robots on the privacy enhancing behaviors of older adults
HRI '12 Proceedings of the seventh annual ACM/IEEE international conference on Human-Robot Interaction
Granny and the robots: ethical issues in robot care for the elderly
Ethics and Information Technology
Robots and reality: a reply to Robert Sparrow
Ethics and Information Technology
Imagery of disabled people within social robotics research
ICSR'12 Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Social Robotics
Robotics, Ethics, and the Environment
International Journal of Technoethics
Ethics and Information Technology
Hi-index | 0.02 |
It is remarkable how much robotics research is promoted by appealing to the idea that the only way to deal with a looming demographic crisis is to develop robots to look after older persons. This paper surveys and assesses the claims made on behalf of robots in relation to their capacity to meet the needs of older persons. We consider each of the roles that has been suggested for robots in aged care and attempt to evaluate how successful robots might be in these roles. We do so from the perspective of writers concerned primarily with the quality of aged care, paying particular attention to the social and ethical implications of the introduction of robots, rather than from the perspective of robotics, engineering, or computer science. We emphasis the importance of the social and emotional needs of older persons--which, we argue, robots are incapable of meeting--in almost any task involved in their care. Even if robots were to become capable of filling some service roles in the aged-care sector, economic pressures on the sector would most likely ensure that the result was a decrease in the amount of human contact experienced by older persons being cared for, which itself would be detrimental to their well-being. This means that the prospects for the ethical use of robots in the aged-care sector are far fewer than first appears. More controversially, we believe that it is not only misguided, but actually unethical, to attempt to substitute robot simulacra for genuine social interaction. A subsidiary goal of this paper is to draw attention to the discourse about aged care and robotics and locate it in the context of broader social attitudes towards older persons. We conclude by proposing a deliberative process involving older persons as a test for the ethics of the use of robots in aged care.