94 - Robot Friendship and Hatred
Can we move beyond the Aristotelian account of friendship when thinking about our relationships with robots? Can we hate robots? In this episode, I talk to Helen Ryland about these topics. Helen is a UK-based philosopher. She completed her PhD in Philosophy in 2020 at the University of Birmingham. She now works as an Associate Lecturer for The Open University. Her work examines human-robot relationships, video game ethics, and the personhood and moral status of marginal cases of human rights (e.g., subjects with dementia, nonhuman animals, and robots).
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Show Notes
Topics covered include:
- What is friendship and why does it matter?
- The Aristotelian account of friendship
- Limitations of the Aristotelian account
- Moving beyond Aristotle
- The degrees of friendship model
- Why we can be friends with robots
- Criticisms of robot-human friendship
- The possibility of hating robots
- Do we already hate robots?
- Why would it matter if we did hate robots?
