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Summary

Philosophical zombies, lacking sentience, are used to explore moral agency. Algorithms function as "moral zombies," highlighting their inability to be truly autonomous or accountable due to a lack of experiential understanding.

Keywords:
AccountabilityAlgorithmsAutonomous systemsAutonomyConsciousnessMoral agencyMoral responsibilityReasons-responsivenessSentienceZombies

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Area of Science:

  • Philosophy of Mind
  • Ethics
  • Artificial Intelligence

Background:

  • The philosophical zombie thought experiment challenges physicalism by positing non-conscious physical duplicates of conscious beings.
  • Moral agency is typically linked to sentience and subjective experience.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To apply the zombie thought experiment to morality and assess if moral agency is independent of sentience.
  • To analyze algorithms as functional moral zombies and their implications for understanding artificial moral agency.

Main Methods:

  • Conceptual analysis using the philosophical zombie thought experiment.
  • Analogy drawn between moral zombies and artificial intelligence algorithms.

Main Results:

  • Algorithms are proposed as a form of "functional moral zombie."
  • Lack of sentience prevents algorithms from possessing genuine moral understanding or accountability.
  • Experiential knowledge of feelings like pain is deemed necessary for true moral reasoning.

Conclusions:

  • Moral agency requires sentience and subjective experience, not just physical or functional duplication.
  • Algorithms, like moral zombies, are incoherent as moral agents due to their inability to feel or value.
  • The absence of sentience fundamentally limits algorithmic autonomy and accountability in moral contexts.