94 - Robot Friendship and Hatred

Can we move beyond the Aristotelian account of friendship when thinking about our relationships with robots? Can we hate robots? In this episode, I talk to Helen Ryland about these topics. Helen is a UK-based philosopher. She completed her PhD in Philosophy in 2020 at the University of Birmingham. She now works as an Associate Lecturer for The Open University. Her work examines human-robot relationships, video game ethics, and the personhood and moral status of marginal cases of human rights (e.g., subjects with dementia, nonhuman animals, and robots).

You can download the episode here or listen below. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify and other podcasting services (the RSS feed is here).

• What is friendship and why does it matter?

• The Aristotelian account of friendship

• Limitations of the Aristotelian account

• Moving beyond Aristotle

• The degrees of friendship model

• Why we can be friends with robots

• Criticisms of robot-human friendship

• The possibility of hating robots

• Do we already hate robots?

• Why would it matter if we did hate robots?

• Helen's homepage

• 'It's Friendship Jim, But Not as We Know It:  A Degrees-of-Friendship View of Human–Robot Friendships' by Helen

• Could you hate a robot? Does it matter if you could? by Helen