Can Robots Be Moral?
The follow up question to this can be “can human beings be moral”?
The answer to both questions, I think, is a qualified yes.
I think a more interesting question is “what keeps people from being moral?”
The Religious Right will tell you that rejecting religion is a surefire way to achieve that.
The “do it because God tells you it’s right” dictum is designed to close down argument and, worse, investigation. And, as any atheist will tell you, that position is morally bankrupt to boot.
Yes, that’s a troll. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
Anyway, what keeps people from being moral? A combination of nature and nurture.
On the nature side, there are a plethora of physical ailments, diseases, and good old fashioned genetic flukes that have a tendency to make us less law-abiding that we might normally be.
One can compensate–somewhat–for nature if the nurture part is intact. We hear the horror stories of child abuse, but the truth is that most parents just muddle through.
Where am I going with this? I’m not sure. More later.