A new opportunity, or the everlasting unresolved problem?

Luís Moniz Pereira, António Barata Lopes

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Not deluding History, the fact that successful societies have not dispensed with the presence of slaves, in one form or another, constitutes our starting point. Even after being legally abolished, slavery informally continues to be present among us. Arguably, one who works the whole month in exchange for housing, food and transportation; who is not master of his time and does not accumulate added value from his work, lives in the same conditions of a slave in previous ages. That said, two paths open, each incompatible with the other. There is a possibility that, for the first time in Human History, a legion of artificial slaves will be produced that will free all humans from drudgery and permit a life of greater dignity. However, this is not the only possible path. AI could continue to serve the most powerful, constituting itself as a tool of domination and instate a society of castes in which manufacturers, robot owners and their managerial officers will exercise a power difficult to scrutinize and counter.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMachine Ethics
Place of PublicationCham
PublisherSpringer
Pages149-154
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-030-39630-5
ISBN (Print)978-3-030-39629-9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Publication series

NameStudies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics
PublisherSpringer
Volume53
ISSN (Print)2192-6255
ISSN (Electronic)2192-6263

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A new opportunity, or the everlasting unresolved problem?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this