Technology and the Appearance of the Good: Carebots, Virtual Virtue, and the Best Possible Life

Mark Coeckelbergh

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Abstract

Growth of the elderly population and nursing shortage place increased pressure on our health care systems. One possible response is to let care robots or carebots take over care tasks. Some of these robots appear human in some way (humanoid robots), or look and act like a pet (pet robots). As personal robots they ‘share physical and emotional spaces with the user’ (Cerqui and Arras 2001) and play a role in daily life. They can assist ill and elderly people by monitoring them, by delivering drugs, by moving them around, by helping them with domestic tasks. They can be used for therapeutic aims, or to entertain and accompany people. How can we evaluate such a near-future scenario in terms of its contribution to ‘the good life’, given that carebots would often replace real humans or pets?
Original languageUndefined
Number of pages2
Publication statusPublished - 2008
EventInternational Workshop: The Good Life in a Technological Age - University of Twente, Enschede
Duration: 12 Jun 200814 Jun 2008

Workshop

WorkshopInternational Workshop: The Good Life in a Technological Age
Period12/06/0814/06/08
OtherJune 12-14, 2008

Keywords

  • IR-76241

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