HUMANA.MENTE Journal of Philosophical Studies

Ethical issues are one of the most interesting aspects of new and emerging technologies. Theoretical and technological advances are increasingly leading to machines, which are efficient enough to share the same environment as humans. This makes ethics a crucial step in the process of developing robotics and intelligent machines. Ethical reflection begins upstream – at the very beginning of research – by asking researchers what they are doing, why, and for whom. It explores their values and broadens the research focus by involving other stakeholders; it involves intuitions that need to be weighed against other intuitions and tested against theology, sapiential knowledge, the arts, and normative theories. Ethics is therefore essential to ensure that the values implemented in robotics and intelligent machines are designed by experts in robotics, computer science, philosophy, psychology [continue].