Panel discussion

Robots have been part of our daily lives for a long time. Who hasn’t thought about purchasing a robotic vacuum cleaner? Industrial robots have also been an integral part of our regular production processes for more than 30 years, even if they are only able to repeat the same actions endlessly.

On the other hand, in addition to our own experiences with so-called machines, science fiction films and other media of our cultural world such as the Futurama cartoon series, or feature films like I, Robot, influence our notions and visions of robots, their abilities and usefulness for us humans.

There have been astounding developments in research over the past few years: robots are becoming more and more autonomous, mobile and intelligent. There is probably hardly any sphere of life in which robots will not be introduced in the future. But what impact will robots have on our lives? What will it be like to live and work together with them? Can we accept everything they will be able to do, for example, in caring for the elderly? Will they replace people or create jobs? How should we assess these developments? What moral and ethical issues need to be resolved? Can a robot, for example, be “blamed” if it breaks something? And how should robots behave towards us, who can and must take responsibility for their actions?

Experts from research, science philosophy, ethics and film aim to pursue these exciting and important questions within the framework of a panel discussion:

We invite all interested persons to take part in the panel discussion at the University of Television and Film on April 21, 2013.

Moderation

Armin Nassehi

Professor of Sociology, LMU Munich

Keynote address

Frank Dittmann

Deutsches Museum

Panel participants

Prof. Dr. Alin Albu Schäffer

Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, DLR e.V.

Klaus Mainzer

Professor of Philosophy and Science Theory, TUM

Munich Center for Technology in Society

Stephan Schleissing

Institute of Technology-Theology-Natural Sciences, LMU Munich

Christoph Falkenroth

MINTiFF, TU Berlin

Helge Ritter

Cognition & Robotics Laboratory (CoR-Lab), University of Bielefeld

Peter C. Slansky

University of Television and Film Munich

The panel discussion took place on April 21, 2013 at the University of Television and Film, Munich.