Artificial Intelligence&Society: Are physical dolls or robots worthy of respect?

Are physical dolls or robots worthy of human respect? As more and more people in society seek companionship and emotional support on physical dolls and robots, this is a problem we need to explore.

 

Professor Nancy Jakol, a bioethicist at Washington University, also questioned these "artificial people" in the magazine Artificial Intelligence&Society, and the answer he gave was yes.

 

"I think we need to question the assumption that robots are just machines that serve us. Doll manufacturers are increasingly creating familiar companion robots with soft, touchable, recognizable sounds and certain feedback capabilities," said Jakol. "People design them in this way to form a social and emotional bond, so we should also have emotions when dealing with physical dolls."

 

In recent years, the physical doll experience museum has become the object of hot discussion and pursuit by various social media, and has been controversial due to its rationality and legitimacy. In 2019, there was a physical doll company in the United Kingdom that took a different approach, providing customers with a more cautious way to choose dolls online and complete payment. The company will be equipped with a professional logistics organization for transportation and recycling. But now the company seems to have ceased to exist.

 

With the development of more and more complex physical dolls, the relationship between artificial dolls and human beings is changing. Physical dolls can not only provide emotional support and companionship for humans, but also enable people to establish a "special relationship" with someone they attach great importance to. Some people naturally ask, as a means to achieve human goals, what is the moral value of the entity doll that keeps close relationship with us besides the pure tool value?

 

At the 2017 Austrian Electronic Arts Festival, Samantha, a companion robot (AI entity doll), was displayed. When the exhibition ended, its chest and other parts of its body were seriously damaged and stained. Some people think that this kind of behavior is not only shameful, but also violates Samantha's moral rights.

 

Contemporary western philosophy has put forward the opposite view, that is, artificial figures cannot be violated, but only as a tool to achieve human goals. It is not easy to deny that Samantha has been violated. Because it lacks inherent suffering ability or independent preference, it may not meet the requirements of personality.

 

The problem with this view is that if there is emotion and the ability to impose moral rules on oneself is critical to moral status, too many people will be excluded, including those with intellectual disabilities, the disabled, the elderly with dementia and most animals.

 

In the Robotics Law, there is a saying that goes like this: "If we regard robots as emotional things, then our behavior towards them should be regulated." We have sufficient reasons to pay attention to people's reactions to physical dolls, regardless of whether it has the 'material' that constitutes a moral status, because people's views on physical dolls may affect the whole society. It is better not to be insensitive to physical dolls, otherwise we may be insensitive to humans. For example, tolerance of violence against physical dolls may lead to tolerance of violence against women.

 

In the final analysis, the emotions or attitudes aroused are almost fixed. If we fill the physical dolls with background stories and names, soft, touchable, lovely faces and sweet tones, people will tend to establish contact with them, trust them and like them. If we design them to be less friendly and purely functional, the reaction will be completely different. What kind of relationships do we desire?

 

Contemporary society tends to regard these dolls as tools, even slaves, whose function is only to help satisfy desires. These people believe that human beings are superior to other creations, which also stems from philosophy. They believe that technology, no matter how complex, is just a tool to help human beings complete their tasks better.

 

Society can broaden their thinking or definition of relationships that can have a positive impact on human life. In fact, some people's belief system is based on the concept that the soul is attached to all things, including inanimate objects, such as robots and physical dolls.

 

In Japan, they think robots are valuable in themselves, while when Japanese manufacturers send robots to western countries, they sell them as "useful". A philosophical idea is to think about how we are connected with the magnificent mountains or the starry sky. When we open ourselves to think about artificial dolls in a similar way, it will affect our behavior and make us positive people. The inspiration comes from the worship of the Sherpa people for the Himalayas and other natural features.

 

If the social thought is limited to seeing physical dolls and robots as tools or slaves, we will harm ourselves and close the risks and possibilities of establishing highly valued social relations with them.




--Reprinted from the public account: Entity doll combat experience