Since robot's first appearance at a factory in 1961, robots have been advanced with rapid technological progress. Robots are now widely influencing human society from factory to war fields, home, and private life, movies, etc. The purpose of this pape...
Since robot's first appearance at a factory in 1961, robots have been advanced with rapid technological progress. Robots are now widely influencing human society from factory to war fields, home, and private life, movies, etc. The purpose of this paper is to comprehend the advent of robot society in the view of Homo mechanicus and to analyse its ethical issues in the ethics of technology. First, the history of robots and the tendency of robot industry are analyzed, and the prospect that the individual service robot will be flourishing in the near future is described. Second, the existing theories on the philosophy of technology related to human-machine relation are analyzed. For theoretical understanding of robot society, Homo mechanicus stressing machine rather than technology and comprising the social phenomena of mechanized human and humanized machine are conceptualized. Then, the history of human-machine relation is described in the view of Homo mechanicus. Third, the advent of robot society is depicted with the examples of humanized machine and mechanized human which include social robots, combat robots, metal and organic prosthetic limbs, neuro-robots, sex robot, etc. Relating to robot society, the issues of roboethics and their characteristics are discussed. The recent endeavors of roboethics to make out an ethical standard are introduced and the argument of feasibility and the philosophical dispute of ethical agents are analyzed. The characteristics of roboethics are suggested as indirect mediation, eventual continuance, and target expansion and applied to analyze the ethical issues. The notion of reflective ethics is suggested to understand the ethical issues of how men treat robots. The future of robot society and its ethical issues are described with the question of whether it could be the hope or the threat. In the conclusion, the summary and the future task are described with urging reflections on future robot society and its ethical problems to cope with the intensifying implosion and mixture of human-robot relation.