[humaine news] Call for Commentaries on "Robot Nannies" (target article in journal Interaction Studies)

[Kerstin Dautenhahn]

Dear colleagues,

For those of you interested in the use of robots in everyday environments, and 
specifically in the use of robots as toys, interaction partners or possible 
caretakers of children, or ethical issues involving human-robot interaction, 
the following target article and call for commentaries might be of interest:

The article  The crying shame of robot nannies: an ethical appraisal by Noel 
Sharkey and Amanda Sharkey has been accepted as a target article to appear in 
2010 in the journal Interaction Studies: Social Behaviour and Communication in 
Biological and Artificial Systems, published by John Benjamins Publishing 
Company (2008 Impact Factor: 1.359).
http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_seriesview.cgi?series=IS

We are inviting commentaries (up to 2000 words) on this article, the abstract 
is included below and the final accepted version is available at: 
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd/SharkeyandSharkey-TargetArticle-IS.pdf

Interaction Studies is an interdisciplinary journal and we invite commentaries 
from various viewpoints and disciplines.

Deadlines:

If you intend to submit a commentary please contact the 
k.dautenhahn at herts.ac.uk as soon as possible, stating your proposed title and 
(briefly) the key message that you would like to address in your commentary.

Submission of commentaries (to k.dautenhahn at herts.ac.uk): 31 October 2009 (PDF, 
up to 2000 words)

Notification: 20 November 2009
Final version of accepted commentaries to be submitted: 15 December 2009
Publication of target article and commentaries: Interaction Studies, volume 11, 
2010

Regards,

Kerstin Dautenhahn

--------------------

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn
Editor in Chief of Interaction Studies
http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_seriesview.cgi?series=IS
Professor of Artificial Intelligence, University of Hertfordshire
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd/

---------------------

Abstract of target article:

Childcare robots are being manufactured and developed with the long term aim of 
creating surrogate carers. While total child-care is not yet being promoted, 
there are indications that it is on the cards. We examine recent research and 
developments in childcare robots and speculate on progress over the coming 
years by extrapolating from other ongoing robotics work. Our main aim is to 
raise ethical questions about the part or full-time replacement of primary 
carers. The questions are about human rights, privacy, robot use of restraint, 
deception of children and accountability. But the most pressing ethical issues 
throughout the paper concern the consequences for the psychological and 
emotional wellbeing of children. We set these in the context of the child 
development literature on the pathology and causes of attachment disorders. We 
then consider the adequacy of current legislation and international ethical 
guidelines on the protection of children from the overuse of robot care.

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Prof. Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn
Professor of Artificial Intelligence
Adaptive Systems Research Group
The University of Hertfordshire, School of Computer Science
College Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, United Kingdom
URL: http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd
E-mail: K.Dautenhahn at herts.ac.uk
Fax: +44-1707-284-303  Tel: +44-1707-284-333