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The relationship that people develop with them will be different from those with other objects and will be more on the design of the social rules governing the human-human relations. With the cost of manufacturing robots coming down, social robots could be a part of the human life in the future. However, research is still going on about the emotional impact and effects that the robots would have on the human users. Therefore an understanding of this issue is becoming a requirement to discuss the ethical and social issues about the roles that robots should be allowed to play in the lives of the human beings (Sullins, 2015).
A socially interactive robot is a kind of robot that can evoke a social response from the human beings because these robots function under the rules of the human behaviour. These robots are designed to operate in the spaces designed for human beings in the everyday environment. To make the communications easier with the human beings, these robots are designed to invoke just reactions according to the rules of the social interaction behaviour of the human society (de Graaf, 2016).
These social robots are designed on the assumption that the human beings prefer to interact with the machines in the same manner as they do with the other humans. The social robots have the capability to interact and communicate with the human users in the precise manner which allows the people to comprehend the robot according to the human social protocols, and be able to relate and empathise with the social robot in the similar manner (de Graaf, 2016).
The humans have a tendency to interact socially not just among themselves but also with the non-human objects in their lives. This is because of the basic ‘need to belong’ motivation which is the driving force of the human relationships (de Graaf, 2016).
This basic need in human beings induces people to form enduring and meaningful relationships with each other and is also the prime reason for the likelihood that the same desire may extend to the human beings forming an emotional bond with the artificial beings or robots. This issue may take an enlarged role if the robots or the artificial beings are lifelike creations endowed with human capabilities like the socially interactive robots (Sullins, 2015).
Relationship with other people and living beings form the core of the very existence of human beings. The increasing level of interaction between the human beings and computerized technologies are becoming more humanlike and complex, emphasising the importance of understanding and evaluating the psychological aspects of the human relationships with these sophisticated technologies (Sullins, 2015). In the present times, with very few social cues on dealing with robots, people are prone to establish unidirectional emotional attachments to the robots. Many scholars and thinkers are pondering over the questions that would it be desirable to have a friendship between the robots and humans or would it be delusional for people to look for a meaningful emotional interaction with a technological being or robot (de Graaf, 2016).
From a purely deterministic point of view the role that a particular technology plays in society is derived from the concept behind that technology and this view only takes the risk assessment of the technology into consideration, which amounts to an ethical evaluation of the empirical aspects of the intended use of the technology (de Graaf, 2016).
But certain scholars challenge this completely functional perspective of technology’s role in society. They argue that when people start using a technology their decision-making is affected by that particular technology which results in moral and ethical decisions being taken on the basis of the interaction between people and that technology. Social norms, morals, ethics, and values are closely intertwined both implicitly and explicitly with the technologies that people use in their daily lives, changing and reinforcing their practices and beliefs (de Graaf, 2016).
Therefore, it can be said that any technology including the robot technology has a socially embedded meaning and have a moral and ethical relevance given their impact on the practices and beliefs of the human beings. The shaping of people’s perspectives and understanding about the robot technology is closely related to the evolution of the prevailing social norms (Sullins, 2015).
One of the important ethical theories is the Utilitarian theory, under which an act or an action is judged based on the results or consequences of that action or act. This approach determines that if the results or consequences of a particular act or action are good then that action is ethical. The definition of good also differs according to scholars and there is one school of Utilitarian ethics which says that measureable happiness or outcomes that are beneficial are very important aspects of judging an act or action. Therefore, people should strive to work in the direction that can ensure that the maximum number of people in a society can enjoy the maximum number of beneficial outcomes (Sullins, 2015).
The beneficial outcomes correlate to good life which further relates to the well-being of the people which has become an important psychological concern in the last few years. Research in the recent years has shown that people have a tendency to develop reciprocity and mutuality feelings towards the robots during their interactions. Some findings have also shown that human beings in certain cases flourish under the care and interaction with the robots. Looking from an ethical definition of human friendship this would assign a virtual virtue to the social robots, irrespective of their intended or designed functions, especially in the care-giving settings. This enables the robots to contribute to the happiness and good life of people giving measurable beneficial outcomes as a result of the human-robot interactions. People have a tendency to ascribe human virtue on the basis of consistent good behaviour so they would qualify such robots to have good habits (Sullins, 2015).
On the other hand, there is a school of thought that believes that in the robot-human relationships, people may be tempted and could succumb to accepting the companionship of the robots without the moral bindings that actual and reciprocal relationships generally involve. Scholars hold the view that the benefits that are being derived from the interactions between robots and humans are the results of deceiving the human beings into thinking and believing that they could eventually establish some kind of relationships with robots over a period of time (de Graaf, 2016).
Some scholars argue that such relationships between humans and robots are delusionary in nature because people erroneously attribute certain qualities to robots, which the robots do not actually possess. This is regarded to be a moral failure as people are unable to comprehend the real world (Sullins, 2015).
Although some scholars consider the robot-human relationships to be delusionary and deceptive, some researchers have offered evidence to show that normal healthy human being while interacting with virtual agents in a completely virtual world are aware of the fact that the virtual entity is not a real entity. People have the ability to imagine an entity to be real even though they that the particular entity in question is not real. Therefore, it can be assumed that people can enjoy interacting with the robots without believing that they are interacting with a social equal (de Graaf, 2016).
As discussed in this paper it can be presumed that human being may develop some relationships with the robots and these could be beneficial in certain circumstances. The need is to invent robotic systems that can deliver effectively the correct care behaviour expected from them and ensure that the robot-human relationships do not substitute their human counterparts in the societal settings and social behaviour (Sullins, 2015).
de Graaf, M.M., (2016). An ethical evaluation of human–robot relationships. International journal of social robotics [Online], Vol. 8, (Issue 4), pp.589-598. Available from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12369-016-0368-5 [Accessed 19August, 2017]
Sullins, J.P., 2015, March. Applied Professional Ethics for the Reluctant Roboticist. In Portland, OR, US. The Emerging Policy and Ethics of Human-Robot Interaction workshop at HRI [Online]. Available from: http://www.openroboethics.org/hri15/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Sullins_Applied-Ethics-for-Reluctant-Robticists.pdf [Accessed 19August, 2017]
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