Biography: \;Professor Tom Sorell is Professor of Politics and Philosophy at the \;University of Warwick (UK)\, and Head of the Interdisciplinary Ethics \;Research Group there
\n(http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/ierg/).
\nPreviously\, he \;was John Ferguson Professor of Global Ethics and Director of the Centre \;for the Study of Global Ethics\, University of Birmingham. In 1996-7\, he \;was Faculty Fellow in Ethics at Harvard. Previously he was Co-Director of \;the Human Rights Centre\, University of Essex. He has published widely in \;philosophy. In bioethics he has written on consumerism and health care \;markets\, insurance\, and\, with Heather Draper\, on patients' \;responsibilities\, telehealth\, telecare and care robots. He is a \;participant in the European care robotics project ACCOMPANY\, and advises \;the robotics projects FROG and EASEL.
\nTitle: \;Do Care robots make an advance on telecare? Presence\, integration and \;"empathy"
\nSynopsis: \;In North America\, Western Europe\, South East Asia and elsewhere\, robots \;are being designed as home-based care companions to less able but \;competent older people. These robots are expensive and relatively \;incapable. What\, if anything\, suits them to be care companions? Perhaps \;"presence" in a sense to be explained\; perhaps "presence" plus the \;integration of functions otherwise requiring many machines\, robotic and \;otherwise. Perhaps certain allegedly empathic capacities. I cast doubt on \;all of these suggestions\, taking as my example of a care robot the \;platform used in the European Commission funded project\, ACCOMPANY \;(http://accompanyproject.eu/). I argue for a mix of telecare technology \;and very simple robots--far simpler than Care-o-bots. Telecare is in \;principle no worse ethically than a care-robot\, is much cheaper and more \;adaptable than robots to a wide variety of housing\, and is already in \;operation in many countries. \; Although telecare is sometimes criticized \;as intrusive\, this is usually based on exaggeration.
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