[ExI] Autonomous car ethics

[Anders]

The original paper can be found at 
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6293/1573

The discrepancy is similar to attitudes in the Riis, Simmons et al. 
study on cognitive enhancers: there was no correlation between 
willingness to take different enhancers and willingness to ban them. 
People were quite happy to take enhancers they thought should be banned.

A reason might be that people think it would be bad for society to have 
the enhancers in question around because they would cause more 
competition, but considering their own life enhancement would be good 
for them. So they actually hold a rational position. Except that it 
produces a public goods dilemma (maybe... I think their evaluation on 
the competition point is just wrong).


On 2016-06-23 23:16, BillK wrote:
> Should a self-driving car kill its passengers for the greater good –
> for instance, by swerving into a wall to avoid hitting a large number
> of pedestrians? Surveys of nearly 2,000 US residents revealed that,
> while we strongly agree that autonomous vehicles should strive to save
> as many lives as possible, we are not willing to buy such a car for
> ourselves, preferring instead one that tries to preserve the lives of
> its passengers at all costs.
>
> <http://www.gizmag.com/driverless-car-ethics/43926/>
>
> Quote:
> As the researchers explained, this problem is a glaring example of the
> so-called tragedy of the commons, a situation in which a shared
> resource is depleted by individual users acting out of self-interest.
> In this case, even though society as a whole would be better off using
> utilitarian algorithms alone, an individual can still improve his
> chances of survival by choosing a self-preserving car at the cost of
> overall public safety.
> --------------
>
>
> BillK
>
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-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University