— We propose economically autonomous behavior as a novel goal for robotic systems. Currently examples of robotic autonomy are often limited to restricted physical environments such as a factory or road. In this paper we instead restrict the notion of autonomy to a social environment: the economy. We define economically autonomous behavior and describe different levels of independence culminating with hypothetical examples of economically autonomous robotic systems.
Economic autonomy is the ability to independently operate as a result of income generated. Modern robotic systems need resources in order to function, such as power to drive motors or consumable parts like tires. For economic autonomy it is necessary to obtain resources needed for continuing existence. However, to be independent (in the sense implied by autonomy) these resources may not be the gifts of an interested party (analogous to the food and shelter a parent gives to a dependent child). The resources should instead be acquired with the income generated by the robot’s activities.
One can also imagine a robots that metaphorically “pays for itself.” This robot earns enough income to pay for its design manufacturer and upkeep. Existing industrial robots would probably fit into this class if they were able to keep their own earnings. Presumably the robots perform enough work to justify their purchase. If such a robot were legally entitled to keep the proceedings from such work it could conceivably emancipate itself (financially at least).
Further along we can imagine a robot which earns enough income to both pay for itself and pay for parts with which
to repair itself. This possibility is intriguing in that the robot could “live” indefinitely (supposing that someone exists who is willing to make parts for what the robot can pay). Such a robot has a variety of subsistence economic autonomy where it is able to survive and keep at the level of functionality roughly equivalent to that at the time of its manufacture. A trivially more sophisticated economically independent robot would be one that is able to earn enough income to improve its capabilities.
Toward the far end of the continuum we can hypothetically conceive robots which can earn enough money to fund their reproduction. Taking an mutualist view (such as Pollan did in Botany of Desire (where he argued that plants exploit us to grow and improve themselves)) one might argue that automated computer trading systems whose success begets bigger and better automated trading systems exhibit this sort of behavior [15]. So let us imagine that a peculiar sort of auto-mat opens up on the street corner. This auto-mat operates like most others dispensing goods with a robot arm. However this robotic auto-mat uses the profits from its sales to pay for the manufacture and assembly of copies of itself. As such it provides an example of economic autonomy.
References
- Reynolds, C., Cassinelli, A., and M. Ishikawa (2007) Economically Autonomous Robotic Entities. Workshop on Roboethics in conjunction with IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA’07). April 10 – 14 2007, Rome, Italy. [PDF]
- Reynolds, C. and Cassinelli, A. (2009) Machine Self-Sacrifice. Eighth International Conference of Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry. June 26-28, 2009, Corfu, Greece. [PDF]