ABSTRACT
I am generally optimistic about emerging technologies, but at least one use of social robotics gives me pause. This chapter expresses my worry about it while recognizing some tangible benefits to its responsible use. In the last chapter, Aristotle’s analogy between false friends and false coinage was introduced as a general tool for thinking about social robotics. Here, the analogy is used to make sense of ethical issues in social robotics for geriatric care. In this context, caregivers must make decisions that are, to the degree possible, consistent with patients’ values and respectful of their beliefs while also advancing their well-being, a task that can be complicated by a variety of cognitive impairments that can occur and progress at varying rates among seniors. These impairments can make accidental deception a real concern and one that may vary day-to-day for individual patients.
