Academic discussion of Kohlberg’s ethical development stages applied to AGI systems

212 12 The Engineering and Development of Ethics Stage Substages Pre-Conventional @ Obedience and Punishment Orientation @ Self-interest orientation Conventional e Interpersonal accord (conformity) orientation e Authority and socialorder maintaining (law and order) orientation Post-Conventional e Social contract (human rights) orientation e@ Universal ethical principles (universal human rights) ori- entation Table 12.1: Kohlberg’s Stages of Development of the Ethics of Justice from formal and then reflexive thinking about ethics comes the post-conventional modalities of contractualism and universal mutual respect. Stage of Social Per-|Interpersonal Outlook spective Blind egoism No interpersonal perspective. Only self is considered. Instrumental egoism [See that others have goals and perspectives, and either con- form to or rebel against norms. Social Relationships|Able to see abstract normative systems perspective Social Systems per-|Recognize positive and negative intentions spective Contractual perspec-|Recognize that contracts (mutually beneficial agreements of tive any kind) will allow intelligences to increase the welfare of both. Universal principle of|See how human fallibility and frailty are impacted by commu- mutual respect nication. Table 12.2: Kohlberg’s Stages of Development of Social Perspective and Interpersonal Morals 12.4.1.1 Uncertain Inference and the Ethics of Justice Taking our cue from the analysis given in Chapter 11 of Piagetan stages in uncertain infer- ence based AGI systems (such as CogPrime ), we may explore the manifestation of Kohlberg’s stages in AGI systems of this nature. Uncertain inference seems generally well-suited as a declarative-ethics learning system, due to the nuanced ethical environment of real world sit- uations. Probabilistic knowledge networks can model belief networks, imitative reinforcement learning based ethical pedagogy, and even simplistic moral maxims. In principle, they have the flexibility to deal with complex ethical decisions, including not only weighted “for the greater HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_013128