Programming Machine Ethics

This book addresses the fundamentals of machine ethics. It discusses abilities required for ethical machine reasoning and the programming features that enable them. It connects ethics, psychological ethical processes, and machine implemented procedures. From a technical point of view, the book uses logic programming and evolutionary game theory to model and link the individual and collective moral realms. It also reports on the results of experiments performed using several model implementations.

Opening specific and promising inroads into the terra incognita of machine ethics, the authors define here new tools and describe a variety of program-tested moral applications and implemented systems. In addition, they provide alternative readings paths, allowing readers to best focus on their specific interests and to explore the concepts at different levels of detail.

Mainly written for researchers in cognitive science, artificial intelligence, robotics, philosophy of technology and engineering of ethics, the book  will also be of general interest  to other academics, undergraduates in search of research topics, science journalists as well as science and society forums, legislators and military organizations concerned with machine ethics.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Turing, Functionalism, And Emergence

Part I The Individual Realm
Chapter 2 The Individual Realm Of Machine Ethics: A Survey
Chapter 3 Significant Moral Facets Amenable To Logic Programming
Chapter 4 Representing Morality In Logic Programming
Chapter 5 Tabling In Abduction And Updating
Chapter 6 Counterfactuals In Logic Programming
Chapter 7 Logic Programming Systems Affording Morality Experiments
Chapter 8 Modeling Morality Using Logic Programming

Part II The Collective Realm
Chapter 9 Modeling Collective Morality Via Evolutionary Game Theory
Chapter 10 Bridging Two Realms Of Machine Ethics

Part III Coda
Chapter 11 Conclusions And Further Work