Human-Robot Dichotomy

Abstract

This paper belongs to the area of roboethics and responsible robotics. It discusses the conceptual and practical separation of humans and robots in designing and implementing robots into real-world environments. We argue here that humans are often seen as a component that is only optional in design thinking, and in some cases even an obstacle to the success of robot performance. Such an approach may vary from viewing humans as a factor that does not belong to the robotics domain, through attempts to 'adjust' humans to robot requirements and to the overall replacement of humans with robots. Such separation or exclusion of humans poses serious ethical challenges, including the very exclusion of ethics from our thinking about robots.