Flourishing Isn’t Free: Paying Down Our Moral and Social Debt in Robotic Systems

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Vallor
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Social Robotics ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Sociotechnical Systems ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social

The conversation about social robots and ethics has matured considerably over the years, moving beyond two inadequate poles: superficially utilitarian analyses of ethical ‘risks’ of social robots that fail to question the underlying sociotechnical systems and values driving robotics development, and speculative, empirically unfounded fears of robo-pocalypses that likewise leave those underlying systems and values unexamined and unchallenged. Today our perspective in the field is normatively richer and more empirically grounded. However, there is still work to be done. In the transition from risk-mitigation that accepts the social status quo, to deeper thinking about how to design different worlds in which we might flourish with social robots, we nevertheless have not reckoned with the moral and social debt already accumulated in existing robotics systems and our broader culture of sociotechnical innovation. We relish our creative and philosophical imaginings of a future in which we live well with robots, but without a serious reckoning with the past and present, and the legacies of harm and neglect that must be redressed and repaired in order for those futures to be possible and sustainable. This talk explores those legacies and their accumulated debts, and what it will take to liberate social robotics from them.

scholarly journals Od pochwały „demokracji szlacheckiej” do krytyki „rządu monarchiczno‑demokratycznego”

Politeja ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (55) ◽  
pp. 43-55
Author(s):  
Rafał Lis
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Traditional Form ◽  
Doctrinal Development ◽  
The Social ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Per Se

From the Apology of a ‘Noble Democracy’ to the Criticism of a ‘Monarchical-Democratic’ Form of Government: The Confederacy of Targowica and the New Trends in the Development of Noble RepublicanismThe article presents main doctrinal trends within the tradition of noble republicanism at the end of the Four Year Seym, affected especially by the Confederacy of Targowica (1792). Acknowledging different attitudes of earlier exponents of noble republicanism towards social issues (especially in the works of Adam Rzewuski and Wojciech Turski), it suggests that this tradition, taken as a whole, willingly identifying with the notion of ‘democracy’, was still in the position to work out a more modern stance. But significantly enough, such a doctrinal development was no longer possible after the announcement of the Confederacy of Targowica. Now, eagerly connoting the extremes of the French Revolution with democracy per se, the exponents of a new political rhetoric not only defended a traditional form of a republic but also the social status quo. The author suggests that this changes indicates a shift from a more ‘democratic’ characteristic of noble republicanism to a strongly class-oriented defence of social privileges, leaving, eventually, less and less room for a more promising and challenging republican stance. Although most of these traits can be already discerned in the narratives of such conservative representatives of noble republicanism as Seweryn Rzewuski, Leonard Olizar and Szczęsny Potocki, it was especially Józef Kossakowski, analyzed in the concluding parts of the article, who was the best exponent of this phenomenon.

scholarly journals VENUGOPAL'S SELF-CONFESSION AND POETRY

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 179-188
Author(s):  
Shahabuddin
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Common ◽  
Common Man ◽  
Taking Action

English: Venugopal has a distinct identity in Hindi poetry. The atmosphere of disillusionment and the social status quo had an effect on your poem. Oriented towards Akavita. But soon you realized his regression. As a result, progressives were oriented towards the stream. The land of reality shaped beautiful dreams of the future. Your poem conveys the hopes, dreams, feelings, sensations of the common man. It also exposes the middle class weaknesses while being sympathetic towards the neglected workers and is a proponent of action against the power. It shares the golden dreams of the future, in retaliation for its oppression-exploitation-violence. It has the content of strategy and tactics for the youth taking action from the power. Sometimes it is very suggestive and expresses socio-political reality in an interesting way. Where the dialogue style is present in it, its symbolism is multidimensional. This poem also questions the role of media by taking a sarcastic pose. Hindi: वेणुगोपाल हिन्दी कविता में विशिष्ट पहचान रखते हैं। मोहभंग के वातावरण और सामाजिक यथास्थिति का आपकी कविता पर प्रभाव पड़ा। अकविता की ओर उन्मुख हुए। परंतु शीघ्र ही आपको उसकी प्रतिगामिता का बोध हुआ। परिणामस्वरूप प्रगतिशील धारा की ओर उन्मुख हुए। यथार्थ की जमीन ने भविष्य के सुन्दर-सुखद स्वप्नों को आकार दिया। आपकी कविता साधारणजन की आशाओं, स्वप्नों, अनुभूतियों, संवेदनाओं को रूपाकार देती है। यह उपेक्षितों-श्रमिकों के प्रति संवेदना रखते हुए भी मध्यवर्गीय कमजोरियों को उजागर करती है और सत्ता के विरुद्ध मोर्चेबन्द कार्रवाही की प्रस्तावक है। यह उसके दमन-शोषण-हिंसा का प्रतिकार करते हुए भी भविष्य के सुनहरे स्वप्न बाँटती है। इसमें सत्ता से मोर्चेबन्द कार्रवाही करते युवाओं हेतु रणनीति और रणकौशल की सामग्री मौजूद है। कहीं-कहीं यह बहुत विचारोत्तेजक है और सामाजिक-राजनीतिक यथार्थ को रोचक ढंग से अभिव्यक्त करती है। इसमें जहाँ संवाद-शैली मौजूद है वहीँ इसकी सांकेतिकता बहुआयामी है। यह कविता व्यंग्यात्मक मुद्रा लेकर मीडिया की भूमिका को भी प्रश्नांकित करती है।

Youth, Social Contracting and the Postcolony

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Everatt
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Global South ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Contracts ◽  
Social Contracting ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Employment Inequality

Social contracts are concerned with the legitimacy of the state over the individual. The social contract offers mutual benefit and reciprocal obligation and is intrinsic to liberalism’s assertion that freedom is normative and encroaching on freedom requires justification. The social contract is both a philosophical idea and a toolkit for defusing conflict and tying participants to core liberal values. Talk of new social contracts, including intergenerational contracts, focus on maintaining a peaceful status quo, not transcending it. For the Global South in general, and youth in particular, the experience is more contract and less social. There seems little opportunity for southern youth to move from the margins to center stage, mimicking the inability of the Global South to do the same. Southern youth bear the brunt of limited economic opportunities, precarious employment, inequality, racism, and violence, compounding their marginalized place in society. What value can social contracting play beyond a short-term band-aid, unless it incorporates a fundamental rupture with the past?

Music Education and Social Reproduction

2015 ◽  
pp. 339-356
Author(s):  
Ruth Wright
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Diverse Students ◽  
Alternative Music ◽  
The Social

This chapter discusses the role of music education in the perpetuation of cycles of unjust hegemonic social reproduction, using Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction and the roles of education and culture therein. Alternative music pedagogies, such as informal learning, are examined as offering potential to break such cycles by allowing accumulation of two forms of cultural capital—pedagogical and musical capital—by diverse students. An empirical example is used to demonstrate how perceptions of the knowledge legimitation code within which music education operates may be shifted, allowing fewer students to self-identify as “non-elite” and therefore not suited to studying music. Some principles are suggested by which music education might act to break cycles of injustice and in whatever small way act to disrupt the social status quo.

The tee-hee of Michaśka (Michał Witkowski). Dangerous liaisons of black humor and camp in "Lubiewo" by Michał Witkowski

Tekstualia ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (39) ◽  
pp. 67-78
Author(s):  
Marcin Czardybon
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Susan Sontag ◽  
The Social ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Black Humor

The article traces the similarities and differences between the categories of black humour and camp. Despite differing creative strategies, it turns out that they both have a subversive potential that undermines the social status quo. Lubiewo by Michał Witkowski can be seen as a model example of combining black humour and camp. These two categories, both employing distance, deconstruct each other through specifi c literary strategies. In Lubiewo, humour noir helps to fi nd out how the effect described by Susan Sontag in her Notes on ‘Camp’ is created. The black humour of Witkowski’s prose shows the tragic dimension behind the camp aesthetics.

scholarly journals Once more on some issues of commemorative culture

Sociologija ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-324
Author(s):  
Djokica Jovanovic
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Social Position ◽  
The State ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Yugoslav Wars

This text discusses some aspects of commemorative culture in our society. On one hand, commemorative culture belongs to the batch of ideas that make up the corpus of ideological ritualization of the past that divinizes the state (or, more precisely, divinizes a particular ideological order). However, the established commemorative culture in our country has been intrinsically fenced up by the nature of the ex-Yugoslav wars during the end of the previous century. It is essential to note that Serbia was not officially a participant in the wars which prevented the recognition of the social status of the people who actually took part in the wars. This fact further meant that it was even less likely that these individuals would be able to make their social position socially institutionalized which deprived them of their hard-earned social status, creating all kinds of unsolved social issues. These individuals remain unacknowledged nowadays as well. Those, as such, do not belong to commemorative culture. This is, at the same time, the rationale for the official non-recognition of the events and dates that marked the wars leading to the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. The author of this paper thinks that it is necessary that a consensus be reached within the virtual boundaries of the now non-existent country about the nature of its commemorative culture. Only In such culture can all the newly founded states and relevant individuals be firmly grounded.

scholarly journals Ma’bulle Tomate : Memori Budaya Aluk Todolo Pada Ritual Kematian di Gandangbatu, Toraja

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Ones Kristiani Rapa' ◽  
Yurulina Gulo
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Death Ritual ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Long Life ◽  
Clear Shift

The aim of this paper is to see how changes occur in the rituals of death in Toraja specifically in Gandangbatu. The intended death ritual is the Ma'bulle Tomate ritual. This Ma'bulle Tomate ritual is one of the rituals contained in Rambu Solo. The method used is a qualitative research method with interview and observation techniques. The Ma'bulle Tomate ritual in Gandangbatu has experienced a clear shift in its practice, which in the past in Aluk Todolo beliefs was accompanied by badong, now replaced by singing. the author found that the meaning of badong in Aluk Todolo is as a medium to express the social status of the dead in society, the completeness of the ritual of his death, prayer requests to Puang Matua so that the deceased get a decent place in puya (a place of waiting) and those who live long life and blessed by Puang Matua. While the meaning of the song in Ma'bulle Tomate is the Christian hymn is just a worship of God and comfort to the family. Through the theoretical approach of Massimo Rosati in the book 'Ritual and Sacred' finally can understand and discover how changes occur in the Ma'bulle Tomate Ritual and the meaning of badong in Aluk Todolo before the entry of Christianity in Gandangbatu.

scholarly journals Dignity as a subject of pedagogical reflection (to the solution of a contemporary issue by means of analysis of foreign thinkers’ of the past thoughts on dignity)

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-232
Author(s):  
Vladimir P. Bezdukhov
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
Social Relevance ◽  
Moral Value ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Teacher Students ◽  
Mental Abilities ◽  
The Right

The relevance of the paper is motivated by the importance of understanding the category of dignity as a category of pedagogical ethics. The author motivates the social relevance of solving a pedagogical plan of the issue of dignity by the fact that the value of dignity in current geopolitical and sociocultural conditions can become the basis of mutual understanding of peoples aspiring to preserve their cultural identity, to recognize the right to uphold traditional values for each of them. While developing a theoretical plan of the issue, the author proceeds from the idea that the basis for its solution should be an analysis of the ideas of thinkers and philosophers of the past that are of great importance to the present. The paper shows how the content of the dignity category, which is relevant for pedagogical ethics, is gradually being formed. Understanding of dignity by Plato is correlated with its understanding by Aristotle: for Plato, dignity is a virtue, which is manifested in the worthy behavior of a person, the quality of the soul (the dignity of the soul lies in wisdom); Aristotle connects dignity of a person with his/her deeds and actions, points to the importance of dignity in friendship based on equality, and not on superiority, on the inherent value of a person, and not on the choice of friends for benefit or pleasure. Summing up the analysis of the ancient thinkers ideas on dignity, the author draws special attention to the fact that it is the orientation to recognition of the dignity by each party of communication that is considered the basis of its adequacy. When analyzing ideas of T. Hobbes and I. Kant, the concept of price of a person becomes the key one. The author shows that T. Hobbes speaks of dignity as the superiority of some subjects over others (intellectual dignity, implying mental abilities, social value of a person, that is, the price given to him/her by the state) and emphasizes the social status of the phenomenon of dignity. I. Kant distinguishes between the concepts of price and dignity, assuming that dignity has neither value nor equivalent, it is higher than price and evaluation, that a person is respected for dignity as an internal moral value, and not for the origin and social status. The author of the paper insists that the value of dignity has the supra-situational importance in teacher-students interaction, it is based on recognition of the equality of all people in moral terms, regardless of their level of morality, social status and social roles performed, determines not only equal attitude of the teacher to all students, but also his/her attitude to him/herself and the attitude of students to him/her.

Robotics Has a Race Problem

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 538-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Sparrow
Keyword(s):  
Humanoid Robots ◽  
Social Robotics ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Race Politics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Design And Manufacture ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Race Problem

If people are inclined to attribute race to humanoid robots, as recent research suggests, then designers of social robots confront a difficult choice. Most existing social robots have white surfaces and are therefore, I suggest, likely to be perceived as White, exposing their designers to accusations of racism. However, manufacturing robots that would be perceived as Black, Brown, or Asian risks representing people of these races as slaves, especially given the historical associations between robots and slaves at the very origins of the project of robotics. The only way engineers might avoid this ethical and political dilemma is to design and manufacture robots to which people will struggle to attribute race. Doing so, however, would require rethinking the relationship between robots and “the social,” which sits at the heart of the project of social robotics. Discussion of the race politics of robots is also worthwhile because of the potential it has to generate insights about the politics of artifacts, the relationship between culture and technology, and the responsibilities of engineers.

scholarly journals Social robotics and the modulation of social perception and bias

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1771) ◽  
pp. 20180037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Skewes ◽  
David M. Amodio ◽  
Johanna Seibt
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Impression Formation ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Social Robotics ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Robot Interaction ◽  
The Social ◽  
Identity Based

The field of social robotics offers an unprecedented opportunity to probe the process of impression formation and the effects of identity-based stereotypes (e.g. about gender or race) on social judgements and interactions. We present the concept of fair proxy communication—a form of robot-mediated communication that proceeds in the absence of potentially biasing identity cues—and describe how this application of social robotics may be used to illuminate implicit bias in social cognition and inform novel interventions to reduce bias. We discuss key questions and challenges for the use of robots in research on the social cognition of bias and offer some practical recommendations. We conclude by discussing boundary conditions of this new form of interaction and by raising some ethical concerns about the inclusion of social robots in psychological research and interventions. This article is part of the theme issue ‘From social brains to social robots: applying neurocognitive insights to human–robot interaction’.

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