Scientists, lawyers mull effects of home robots

Scientists, lawyers mull effects of home robots

www.usatoday.com

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Eric Horvitz illustrates the potential dilemmas of living with robots by telling the story of how he once got stuck in an elevator at Stanford Hospital with a droid the size of a washing machine.
"I remembered thinking, 'Whoa, this is scary,' as it whirled around, almost knocking me down," the Microsoft researcher recalled. "Then, I thought, 'What if I were a patient?' There could be big issues here."

We're still far from the sci-fi dream of having robots whirring about and catering to our every need. But little by little, we'll be sharing more of our space

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[edit on 7-12-2009 by PapaKrok]

[edit on 7-12-2009 by PapaKrok]

[edit on 7-12-2009 by PapaKrok]

The subject of robotic assistance in personal life is not without some emerging concerns in the legal arena. I wonder if this will open a new field of robot-law or if these types of incidents could possibly be covered under existing law? Hmmmm, Asimov might find this interesting.

What happens when they reach a degree of autonomy and may actually qualify for a lawyer of their own? Now that would be interesting, indeed.

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