An ontic–ontological theory for ethics of designing social robots : a case of Black African women and humanoids

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Authors

Lamola, M.J. (John)

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Springer

Abstract

Given the affective psychological and cognitive dynamics prevalent during human–robot-interlocution, the vulnerability to cultural-political influences of the design aesthetics of a social humanoid robot has far-reaching ramifications. Building upon this hypothesis, I explicate the relationship between the structures of the constitution social ontology and computational semiotics, and ventures a theoretical framework which I proposes as a thesis that impels a moral responsibility on engineers of social humanoids. In distilling this thesis, the implications of the intersection between the socio-aesthetics of racialised and genderised humanoids and the phenomenology of human–robot-interaction are illuminated by the figuration of the experience of a typical black rural African woman as the user, that is, an interlocutor with an industry-standard socially-situated humanlike robot. The representation of the gravity of the psycho-existential and socio-political ramifications of such woman’s life with humanoids is abstracted and posited as grounds that illustrate the imperative for roboticists to take socio-ethical considerations seriously in their designs of humanoids.

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Keywords

Computational semiotics, Humanoids, Robot gender, Robotic ethics, Robot race, Postphenomenology

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Lamola, M.J. An ontic–ontological theory for ethics of designing social robots: a case of Black African women and humanoids. Ethics and Information Technology 23, 119–126 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-020-09529-z.