Post date: Oct 21, 2017 5:38:20 PM

See also Humane programming languages.

Stapeldon Philosophy Colloquium: Driverless Cars and Ethics Without Algorithms

Stapeldon Philosophy Colloquium: Driverless Cars and Ethics Without Algorithms - Fiona Woollard

Monday 6 November, 3-5pm

School of the Arts, Library (19 Abercromby Square)

Now that the trolleys are starting to drive themselves, the trolley problem is back with a vengeance! A car or trolley that is able to drive itself without any human input – without anyone in the driver's seat and without anyone in control in the background – is called an autonomous system. Discussion of robot ethics is often set up by questioning which moral system it would be appropriate to program into such an autonomous system, and then how such programming might be achieved. Suppose a driverless car could only avoid killing five pedestrians by swerving into one? Suppose it can only avoid killing a pedestrian by putting the occupants of the car in danger. What principles should it use to decide how to act? Yet almost all contemporary moral theories recognise an ineliminable role for judgment.

Correct moral judgments cannot be reached simply by applying an algorithm that could be programmed in advance. This connects to a more general trend in intelligent software development. Autonomous Systems engineers are moving away from the explicit programming of complex algorithms toward the training of multi-layered neural networks. We teach computers to recognise pictures of cats not by providing detailed instructions on what cats look like, but by showing it huge numbers of pictures of cats. A similar approach to ethical decision-making would leave us with autonomous systems that were also ethically autonomous. They would be more adaptable and more sensitive to context, but would be making, but we would also be unable to control, or even to know, the ethical reasoning. It looks like we must choose between sensitivity and control. We explore the ethical and practical questions this generates about our acceptance of, and ability to work with, ethically sensitive autonomous systems.

All welcome.

Filomena Saltao

Filomena.Saltao@liverpool.ac.uk

School of the Arts

19/10/2017

https://www.southampton.ac.uk/philosophy/about/staff/fw1n09.page

Dr Fiona Woollard BA Oxford, M.Litt St Andrews, PhD Reading

Associate Professor (on research leave)

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Dr Fiona Woollard is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton.

I am happy to supervise students in normative and applied ethics, in the philosophy of pregnancy and motherhood and in the philosophy of sex.

Fiona Woollard joined Philosophy in September 2010. She completed her PhD at the University of Reading in 2008 and then held a temporary lectureship at the University of Sheffield for two years. She has research interests in normative ethics, applied ethics, epistemically transformative experiences and the philosophy of sex and pregnancy. She has published on topics including the distinction between doing and allowing harm, climate change and the non-identity problem, the moral significance of numbers, pornography and the norm of monogamy.

Fiona's monograph on the Doctrine of Doing and Allowing is available from Oxford University Press. The Doctrine of Doing and Allowing states that doing harm is harder to justify than merely allowing harm. Fiona defends the Doctrine of Doing and Allowing, arguing that this doctrine is necessary if aything is to genuinely belong to person - even that person's body. The monograph also explores the relationship between the Doctrine of Doing and Allowing and general ethical theories and its implications for our duties to aid distant strangers in severe need.

Fiona’s current research is in the Philosophy of Pregnancy, Birth and Early Motherhood. Fiona shows that pregnancy, birth and early motherhood can challenge traditional ways of thinking about morality and knowledge. Fiona also identifies ways in which philosophical mistakes in our thinking about motherhood can influence the treatment of pregnant women and mothers, often leading to harmful consequences for these vulnerable groups. Fiona is working with parental support organisations, parent groups, health professionals and MPs to combat guilt and shame surrounding infant feeding decisions. She is also exploring ways in which work in the philosophy of pregnancy, birth and early motherhood can be used to help improve the treatment of women suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum or extreme pregnancy sickness. For more detail on Fiona’s work on the Philosophy of Pregancy, Birth and Early Motherhood, click here or here.

Fiona held a Non-Residential Fellowship in Philosophy of Transformative Experience at the Experience Project (Templeton Foundation, University of Notre Dame, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) from September 2016 to February 2017 and a Mind Association Early Career Fellowship from October 2011 to April 2012. She was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University from October to December 2011.

She is the Co-Treasurer of the British Society of Ethical Theory and a member of the Analysis Trust Committee.

Follow Fiona on Twitter here for further updates on her work.

On research leave, no office hours.

Research interests

Fiona's main research interests are in normative and applied ethics, in particular exploration of the nature and moral significance of deontological distinctions such as the distinction between doing and allowing harm, obligations to aid, body-ownership and philosophical issues surrounding pregnancy and motherhood. Her other research interests include the philosophy of sex.

Fiona is happy to supervise research students in normative and applied ethics, in philosophy of pregnancy and motherhood and in the philosophy of sex. Particularly appropriate topics include: deontological distinctions (doing vs allowing harm, intended vs foreseen harm), body-ownership, moral demandingness, obligations to aid, the non-identity problem, the rights and duties of pregnant women, euthanasia, abortion, surrogacy, organ donation and famine relief, monogamy and pornography.