An exoskeleton is a powered frame that attaches to the body to provide support and strength. The movie Live, Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow featured combat exoskeletons. These fictional devices allow soldiers to run faster and longer while carrying heavier loads, giving them an advantage in combat. There are also peaceful applications of technology, such as allowing people with injuries to walk and augmenting human abilities for the workplace. For those concerned with fine details of nerdiness, exoskeletons should not be confused with cybernetic parts (these fully replace body parts, such as limbs or eyes) or powered armor (like that used in the novel Starship Troopers and by Iron Man).

As with any new technology, the development of exoskeletons raises ethical questions. Fortunately, humans have been using technological enhancements since we started being human, so this is familiar territory. Noel Sharkey raises one moral concern, namely that “You could have exoskeletons on building sites that would help people not get so physically tired, but working longer would make you mentally tired and we don’t have a means of stopping that.” His proposed solution is an exoskeleton that switches off after six hours.

A similar problem arose with earlier technology that reduced the physical fatigue of working. For example, the development of early factory and farming equipment allowed people to work longer hours and more efficiently. Modern technology has made such work even easier. For example, a worker can drive a high-tech farm combine as easily as driving a car.  Closer analogies to exoskeletons include such things as fork-lifts and cranes: a person can operate those to easily lift heavy loads that would be exhausting or impossible to do with mere muscles. So, Sharkey’s concern would also apply to the forklift: a person could drive one around for six hours and not be very tired physically yet become mentally tired. As such, whatever moral solutions applicable to the problem of forklifts also apply to exoskeletons.

Mental overwork is not a problem limited to exoskeletons or technology in general. After all, many jobs are not very physically tiring and people can keep writing legal briefs, teaching classes and managing workers to the point of mental exhaustion without being physically exhausted.

 For those who consider such overwork to be undesirable, the solution lies in workplace regulation or the (always vain) hope that employers will do the right thing. Without regulations protecting workers from being overworked, in the future employers would presumably either buy exoskeletons without timers or develop work-arounds, such as resetting timers.

Also, exoskeletons themselves do not get tired, so putting a timer on an exoskeleton would be like putting a use timer on a forklift. Doing so would reduce the value of the equipment, since it could not be used for multiple shifts. As such, that sort of timer system would be unfair to the employers in that they would be paying for equipment that should be usable round the clock but would instead be limited.  An easy fix would be a system linking the timer to the worker: the exoskeleton timer would reset when equipped by a new worker. This creates problems about incorporating work limits into hardware rather than by using regulation and policy about the limits of work. In any case, while exoskeletons would be new in the workplace, they add nothing new to the moral landscape. Technology that allows workers to be mentally overworked while not being physically overworked is nothing new and existing solutions can be applied if exoskeletons become part of the workplace, just as was done when forklifts were introduced.