How trusting are you of a machine? We've all seen a dystopian of a mechanical world at some point in time, be it Terminator or The Isla...
How trusting are you of a machine? We've all seen a dystopian of a mechanical world at some point in time, be it Terminator or The Island. Everyday you look to an electrical device for information, indeed newspapers and other hard copies of new information tend to be a rarity. You enter your credit card details on eBay, you process money transfers through online banking. We hand over so much information to computers and phones in this day and age we may as well be giving them total control of our lives.
So it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say, let your car drive you around so you have more time to browse Reddit or check the stocks. However, do keep in mind that handing control of the steering wheel to a computer also means handing over the judgement and decisions made on the road. Sometimes that judgement isn't overly correct, like in the video below.
Self driving cars are the next step up for the automotive industry, with Google releasing their own which can handle unexpected situations such as being cut-off or suddenly overtaken. However, as with everything there is an exception. In this case, a crash is inevitable.
The question is, how will the car handle it?
Let's bring the Trolley Problem into this.
You have five people tied up on one side of a track, and your only child tied up on the other. A trolley is bound to hit one of the two, but you have control over which party is hit.
This is an ethical question that typically helps to determine human personality, namely the ability to think logically in the face of emotional pressure. Is it better to let 5 people die? Or should you deliberately kill your son to save the others? Of course, there are several variants, such as having 5 murderers on the tracks or pushing a fat man off a bridge to stop the trolley.
Now imagine handing over this decision to your car. Between choosing to hit a busload of school children or the nearest concrete wall, utilitarianism dictates that the most utilitarian action must be taken, namely sacrificing the minority for the majority.
Just a little thing to think about.
The question is, how will the car handle it?
Let's bring the Trolley Problem into this.
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This is an ethical question that typically helps to determine human personality, namely the ability to think logically in the face of emotional pressure. Is it better to let 5 people die? Or should you deliberately kill your son to save the others? Of course, there are several variants, such as having 5 murderers on the tracks or pushing a fat man off a bridge to stop the trolley.
Now imagine handing over this decision to your car. Between choosing to hit a busload of school children or the nearest concrete wall, utilitarianism dictates that the most utilitarian action must be taken, namely sacrificing the minority for the majority.
Just a little thing to think about.
