Bio: John Sullins is an assistant professor at Sonoma State University who specializes in roboethics – both the ethical quandaries facing robotic engineers and the moral dilemmas that robots will face as they become increasingly complex.

Web site: http://sonoma.academia.edu/JohnSullins
Twitter: http://twitter.com/JPSullins

Questions and Answers:

DailyGeek: As a roboethicist, what did you think of the re-made TV show Battlestar Galactica where robots turned against their human creators?
Sullins: I saw it a little differently than most people I am
sure. As a roboethicist I thought it was
a fantastic series with a great number of episodes that really dealt with the
tough issues confronting the emerging field of roboethics. Roboethics is the study of how to program
machines in such a way that they are capable of making ethical decisions that
fit with human moral reasoning. As
machines enter our lives and simultaneously become more autonomous, they will
have to make decisions that have moral impact.
Battlestar Galactica gives us a good example of how disastrous it could
be if we do not succeed in developing a functional roboethics. Other science fiction books and shows have
entertained this question before but BSG looked closely, and unflinchingly, at
how ethics and morality is a reciprocal relationship of rights and responsibilities
and that artificial moral agents will not only have responsibilities towards us
but will also need to be granted certain rights.
We have a long history of occasionally
refusing to grant rights to other humans so I think the machines are not going
to have a very easy time of it either.
The great science fiction writer Philip K. Dick said that the job of
science fiction was to imagine dystopian futures so we do not actually have to
live them. I am certain we will do
better in the real world than they did on New Caprica.

DailyGeek: How integrated do you think robots will be in our lives by
the year 2030, and how much of a threat will they pose?
Sullins: By 2030, baring some global economic or climatic disaster,
household robots are likely to be as ubiquitous as personal computers were by
the 1990’s. The mechanical engineering
is already in place for humanoid and other biologically inspired machines and
by then computing power will make something roughly equivalent of the power of
a human brain cost well under a few thousand dollars.
What may still be lacking,
however, is software. We are still
somewhat in the dark when it comes to fully understanding how our own minds
work, much less being up to the task of designing robust artificial ones. But there is a lot of money being directed
towards military robotics. The Internet
came out of military research in the last century and it is likely that current
military spending will spin off world-changing robotics technology by mid
century.

DailyGeek: What do you think is the most impressive use of a robot
today?
Sullins: I am very interested in the work of the Personal Robotics
Group in the MIT Media Lab. They are
working on making robots that are not only useful but also social, meaning that
they learn how to interact with you instead of you having to learn how to
interact with them. Robot projects like the small humanoid MDS is testing how to make robots that can fit into a work or family social
structure. If successful, this will be a
real change in the design of technology since our technology will then begin to
bend itself to our needs rather than the way it is now where each new
technology forces us to radically alter our way of life.

DailyGeek: Are people currently using robots in a way that concern you?
Sullins: My biggest concern has to be the great leap we have made in
military robotics. In just a decade or
so here in the US
we have gone from having no military robots to having many thousands in the
field today. There are a staggering
number of designs being proposed for the Future Combat Systems program,
everything form small insect sized robots to semi autonomous fighting
vehicles. Warfare is already a troubling
ethical situation and placing new technology in service before we fully
understand what effects it will have greatly compounds the problem. Automating the hard moral decisions found in
combat may cause us to stop facing them ourselves.

DailyGeek: As for today’s technology, what OS do you primarily use?
Sullins: I have been fully assimilated by Microsoft for some time
now. But I felt badly about it so I am
experimenting with Linux. As someone
that teaches computer ethics, I am torn between the very strong arguments in
favor of open source software and Jaron Lanier’s counter argument that open
source is incapable of creating innovative products.

DailyGeek: Do you have a preferred Internet browser, and additionally,
do you have any favorite plugins for your browser?
Sullins: I like Firefox right now but I am keeping an eye on
Chrome. I tend to not trust plugins so I
do not use any.

DailyGeek: What other social network applications do you use?
Sullins: Facebook too keep up with my students, Plaxo and LinkedIn
for business, and Academia.edu (http://sonoma.academia.edu/JohnSullins ) for
connecting with fellow researchers. Twitter “I am not sure why but there must be
something I can do with it.

DailyGeek: What are your favorite Web sites?
Sullins: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Futurist
and Transhuman Guru Raymond Kurzweil has a fabulous site.

DailyGeek: Favorite way to get news?
Sullins: PressDemocrat.com of course, as well as Singularity Hub , to follow the
transmigration of humanity into the machine, and Inside Higher Ed , to follow the death of the American higher
education system.

DailyGeek: What type of phone do you use?
Sullins: A Blackberry Pearl, a smart phone on a professor’s budget.

DailyGeek: What is your favorite cellphone application?
Sullins: I try to stay off my mobile phone but when I succumb I use
the maps and browser applications the most.

DailyGeek: Favorite productivity tech tool?
Sullins: I can only be productive when I turn it all off except for a
word processor for writing and the web for research. When working with others, PBwiki is very
handy.

DailyGeek: Favorite piece of technology that is not mainstream?
Sullins: Lego Mindstorms NXT robotics kit. This is a fantastic way to get into amateur
robotics. The kit is brilliantly
designed and has to be one of the best educational toys ever created.

What is your favorite Open Source software program?
Sullins: Bricx Command Center 3.3 and Not eXactly C, they are open
source programming environments for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robotics kits.

DailyGeek: What question should have I asked?
Sullins: What is the appropriate role for technology in our
lives?
Sullins to Sullins:The unexamined technology is not
worth building. During my short time at
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the 90’s working around people like John
Seeley Brown, the late Mark Wieser, my mentor Noam Cook, and the thousands of
other brilliant minds contained in that building I learned that technology that
is built not only with good engineering and sound marketing but also with
social and philosophical values worked in consciously into the design is what
results in the best possible technology, technology that can help makes us
better as human beings.

Bonus question from the last Q&A participant Roy Tennant, a digital librarian:

Tennant: Do you think that one day software robots will roam the Internet to gather information, analyze what is found and present us with findings, and if so, do you forsee any ethical implications?

Sullins: Absolutely, these artificial agents would be much more intelligent versions of the bots that search engines like Google already use. There will be a number of important ethical issues regarding this type of artificial agent. Privacy issues would be the most important, these agents would have to be programed to respect the rights of human users and even other artificial agents. In addition to this trust will also be a big issue, how will you be able to trust the information these agents dig up for you? With increased intelligence will come more complicated motives in these agents. Perhaps they have some other agenda or interests separate from your own and may spin the information they deliver to try to influence your beliefs or actions. It will be important that they adhere to similar ethical codes that human librarians and researchers do today.