I’m an Engineer March 2014 has got off to a flying start! The questions are really out of this world!

In the live chat’s the students and engineers have been chatting about the ethics around giving robots feelings:

Student: Is there any chance that robots will ever be capable of feeling love?

Neil Bowles: Love and robots. Apart from sounding like an album title from the 1980s, who knows? I have a colleague here (a philosopher) who wonders if we are all living in a computer simulation anyway, which is an interesting question actually.
Probably I certainly have a love/hate relationship with my computer when I’m coding! robots with feelings, probably not dangerous unless their moral compass, for want of a better phrase was different.

While the posted ASK questions, have covered everything from the engineers’ favourite thing about their jobs, to changing the laws of physics. There have been questions on how to collect data from a satellite, and whether the engineers would be interested in going on a one-way mission to Mars.

There are a lot more live chats to come over the next two weeks, check back tomorrow for more updates; and make sure to look at the recent questions in the Space Zone, and leave comments if you want to know more about the answers.

Thanks to the Science and Technology Facilities Council for funding I’m an Engineer.