The Robot Manners Conundrum

Humanoid robots are starting to move from labs into workplaces, schools, stores, and homes. As they become more common, we will have to decide how people are expected to behave around them.

Do you say please and thank you to a robot? Do you correct a child who constantly insults one? If someone screams at a humanoid machine in public, does it matter if the robot cannot feel humiliated?

The robot may not care. But human manners are partly habits, and habits formed around machines may carry over into how we treat people.

The Conundrum:

One view is that we should extend basic courtesy to humanoid robots because the behavior shapes us, the people watching us, and the social norms children learn.

The other is that courtesy should remain tied to beings capable of experiencing respect or cruelty. Treating machines as though they deserve manners could blur an important line between people and products.

As humanoid robots become part of everyday life, should society expect us to treat them with basic human courtesy even though they cannot feel it, or should we preserve a clear social distinction between respecting a person and operating a machine?