Q&A 9

1. Some people fear that development of intelligent robots could have negative consequences 
for humans. Bill Joy is one of them (human not robot) 

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html

Is it ethical to do research aimed at developing intelligent robots? Give reasons for your 
answer. 

This is a tricky subject. I would say it’s ethical because there is a lot of useful ways robots can be used. To save lives, and they can do many things humans can't do. Like explore unexplored planets that humans cannot survive on, or gather information in places humans can’t be (because they are too hot or cold). Hopefully developing intelligent robots wouldn’t result in self-evolving robots that improve themselves beyond human understanding. 


2. You are president of a medium-sized, publicly-traded computer-gaming company. Your company has just bought a smaller game company that was developing three new games. One of the three games is complete and ready to ship and sell. However, its content is violent and demeaning to women. It would probably sell a very large number of copies and bring significant revenue to your company. You have to decide what to do with the game.
 
(a) Give some options and arguments for and against each option. 

As a woman, I'm semi-bias against this game, for the demeaning and violent actions towards women. One of the core subjects that women are still fighting for nowadays. This game would help human society backtrack. It may make it harder for me to sleep at night, and it is also not good for my company's reputation. On the other hand, this game would bring in a lot of money. It’s almost like selling your soul, to do what you don’t believe in. However, there are a lot of games out there that are violent and demeaning towards women, and they still are big sellers... so why not cash in on the trend? 


 (b) Which option will you choose? Why? 

I like to do what I believe in, and I would choose not to sell the game. I like to be able to sleep at night, and have a clear conscience. If it is a good enough game, perhaps I would settle somewhere in the middle, and sell the rights to another company, so that they can deal with the game and its violence.


3. You work for a company that develops security products. You helped write software for a car door lock that operates by matching the driver’s thumbprint. Since that project was completed your manager left the company and you have a new manager. A local power station wants your company to develop a thumbprint-operated door lock for secure areas of the station. 

Your (new) manager says to use the software from the car lock project. What is your response? Why?

I would first respond by saying that I need to contact the manager that helped me write the software, because the rights are not 100% mine. If he agrees, I would use the software no problem. However, if he disagrees, I would use all of my knowledge, and write a similar-but-different software for the local power station.