Machines as Moral Patients We Shouldn’t Care About : The Interests and Welfare of Current Machines
Philosophy and Technology 27 (1):79-96 (2014)
Abstract
In order to determine whether current (or future) machines have a welfare that we as agents ought to take into account in our moral deliberations, we must determine which capacities give rise to interests and whether current machines have those capacities. After developing an account of moral patiency, I argue that current machines should be treated as mere machines. That is, current machines should be treated as if they lack those capacities that would give rise to psychological interests. Therefore, they are moral patients only if they have non-psychological interests. I then provide an account of what I call teleo interests that constitute the most plausible type of non-psychological interest that a being might have. I then argue that even if current machines have teleo interests, they are such that agents need not concern themselves with these interests. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, current machines are not moral patients.Author's Profile
DOI
10.1007/s13347-013-0122-y
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Citations of this work
On the moral status of social robots: considering the consciousness criterion.Kestutis Mosakas - 2021 - AI and Society 36 (2):429-443.
The Measurement Problem of Consciousness.Heather Browning & Walter Veit - 2020 - Philosophical Topics 48 (1):85-108.
A Defense of the Rights of Artificial Intelligences.Eric Schwitzgebel & Mara Garza - 2015 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 39 (1):98-119.
Granting Automata Human Rights: Challenge to a Basis of Full-Rights Privilege.Lantz Fleming Miller - 2015 - Human Rights Review 16 (4):369-391.
References found in this work
The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus.Elliott Sober - 1984 - University of Chicago Press.
Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach.Martha C. Nussbaum - 2000 - Cambridge University Press.