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The Ethical Governance for the Vulnerability of Care Robots: Interactive-Distance-Oriented Flexible Design

Author

Listed:
  • Zhengqing Zhang

    (School of Marxism, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China)

  • Chenggang Zhang

    (Department of Sociology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

  • Xiaomeng Li

    (Department of Sociology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

Abstract

The application of caring robots is currently a widely accepted solution to the problem of aging. However, for the elderly groups who live in gregarious residences and share intelligence devices, caring robots will cause intimacy and assistance dilemmas in the relationship between humans and non-human agencies. This is an information-assisted machine setting, with resulting design ethics issues brought about by the binary values of human and machine, body and mind. The “vulnerability” in risk ethics demonstrates that the ethical problems of human institutions stem from the increase of dependence and the obstruction of intimacy, which are essentially caused by the increased degree of ethical risk exposure and the restriction of agency. Based on value-sensitive design, caring ethics and machine ethics, this paper proposes a flexible design with the interaction-distance-oriented concept, and reprograms the ethical design of caring robots with intentional distance, representational distance and interpretive distance as indicators. The main purpose is to advocate a new type of human-machine interaction relationship emphasizing diversity and physical interaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhengqing Zhang & Chenggang Zhang & Xiaomeng Li, 2022. "The Ethical Governance for the Vulnerability of Care Robots: Interactive-Distance-Oriented Flexible Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-18, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:2303-:d:752053
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Estela Calatayud & Beatriz Rodríguez-Roca & Javier Aresté & Yolanda Marcén-Román & Carlos Salavera & Isabel Gómez-Soria, 2021. "Functional Differences Found in the Elderly Living in the Community," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-10, May.
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