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I find it so curious how people are perfectly happy to accept human casualties so long as it’s the the status quo / caused by a human. Every time an autonomous

I find it so curious how people are perfectly happy to accept human casualties so long as it’s the the status quo / caused by a human. Every time an autonomous vehicle causes a car accident, there are many people calling to ban them. Yet when a human causes an accident, it’s “just the way it is, people need to get to work, nothing we can do about it”. Doesn’t matter if the rate of incidence is lower, people would rather have more accidents they can emphasise with. Human bias is so fascinating.

alexb_ 3y ago
It's not really that curious: - People put the probability of them getting involved in an accident that is their fault at 0. - People put the probability of them getting involves in an accident that is a robot's fault at >0 This is why people are afraid of flying and not driving. The agency is the big problem. If your objection is "what about others" - humans are naturally selfish and will hold whatever belief that are incentivized to.
- talldatethrow 3y ago
  Not only that, we usually know when we're doing something risky and agree to do it. But I don't agree to let YOU do that while I'm the passenger. For example, I know driving is somewhat dangerous... But I also know that if I have my newborn in the car with me on the way home from the hospital, I am able to drive 1000x more cautiously than my typical drive to work at 6am.
SirMaster 3y ago
This doesn't seem hard to understand at all to me. Someone getting hurt or killed by a machine in a factory likely wasn't following the proper and ideal safety protocols for one reason or another. Lots of people are careless and don't care enough about safety rules in my experience. So it's not hard to end up with a lower number of total incidents when robot are put in charge. But for some person who is not careless and who does follow safety protocols religiously, a robot causing them harm could be outside of their own control, even if they are following all the safety protocols and are always very careful. Can you see how that could be a problem?
- elcritch 3y ago
  No, a well designed safety protocol will integrate with the robot operation. Unless the safety protocol is flawed there should be no incidents with the robots. If the safety protocol is flawed it could happen with humans as well.
  - SirMaster 3y ago
    I don't know how you can guarantee that. That a well designed safety protocol for am AI machine would never make a mistake that a given human wouldn't make. People are allowed to operate with their own additional steps of safety precautions which may be much more conservative than the steps assigned to an automated machine that they must now interact with. I'm talking about general personal safety protocols that a person could follow, that could be safer and more conservative than the protocols governing a more automatic machine. A machine being controlled by AI could have unpredictable behavior, I mean look at other areas of AI. Can we really predict what will always happen?
tqi 3y ago
I think part of problem is that it's not a pure reduction in casualties, but rather a large reduction in causalities of one kind in exchange for a small increase in casualties of another kind. Which means we end up gravitating to cases where someone would have been alive if not for [New Technology].
JambalayaJim 3y ago
Robots can operate on a scale much higher than humans. Flawed self driving software can potentially cause havoc in a way that a single bad driver could not. It’s natural to expect robots to be several times more safe than humans if we are to let them into dangerous situations with us. Also, I think people are rightfully concerned about a future in which self driving cars result in more cars on the road as opposed to fewer. An unbounded congestion potential!

alexb_ 3y ago

It's not really that curious: - People put the probability of them getting involved in an accident that is their fault at 0. - People put the probability of them getting involves in an accident that is a robot's fault at >0 This is why people are afraid of flying and not driving. The agency is the big problem. If your objection is "what about others" - humans are naturally selfish and will hold whatever belief that are incentivized to.

talldatethrow 3y ago
Not only that, we usually know when we're doing something risky and agree to do it. But I don't agree to let YOU do that while I'm the passenger. For example, I know driving is somewhat dangerous... But I also know that if I have my newborn in the car with me on the way home from the hospital, I am able to drive 1000x more cautiously than my typical drive to work at 6am.

SirMaster 3y ago

This doesn't seem hard to understand at all to me. Someone getting hurt or killed by a machine in a factory likely wasn't following the proper and ideal safety protocols for one reason or another. Lots of people are careless and don't care enough about safety rules in my experience. So it's not hard to end up with a lower number of total incidents when robot are put in charge. But for some person who is not careless and who does follow safety protocols religiously, a robot causing them harm could be outside of their own control, even if they are following all the safety protocols and are always very careful. Can you see how that could be a problem?

elcritch 3y ago
No, a well designed safety protocol will integrate with the robot operation. Unless the safety protocol is flawed there should be no incidents with the robots. If the safety protocol is flawed it could happen with humans as well.
- SirMaster 3y ago
  I don't know how you can guarantee that. That a well designed safety protocol for am AI machine would never make a mistake that a given human wouldn't make. People are allowed to operate with their own additional steps of safety precautions which may be much more conservative than the steps assigned to an automated machine that they must now interact with. I'm talking about general personal safety protocols that a person could follow, that could be safer and more conservative than the protocols governing a more automatic machine. A machine being controlled by AI could have unpredictable behavior, I mean look at other areas of AI. Can we really predict what will always happen?

tqi 3y ago

I think part of problem is that it's not a pure reduction in casualties, but rather a large reduction in causalities of one kind in exchange for a small increase in casualties of another kind. Which means we end up gravitating to cases where someone would have been alive if not for [New Technology].

JambalayaJim 3y ago

Robots can operate on a scale much higher than humans. Flawed self driving software can potentially cause havoc in a way that a single bad driver could not. It’s natural to expect robots to be several times more safe than humans if we are to let them into dangerous situations with us. Also, I think people are rightfully concerned about a future in which self driving cars result in more cars on the road as opposed to fewer. An unbounded congestion potential!