Figure 1. The Robot Scientist 'Eve'. Philosophical and Social Dimensions Automating Sciences Ross D. King, Vlad Schuler Costa, Chris Mellingwood, and Larisa N. Soldatova Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2018.2795097 Date of publication: 2 March 2018 40 1932-4529/18©2018IEEE C lark Glymour argued in 2004 that "despite a lack of public fanfare, there is mounting evidence that we are in the midst of ... a revolution - premised on the automation of scientific discovery" [1]. This paper highlights some of the philosophical and sociological dimensions that have been found empirically in work conducted with robot scientists - that is, with autonomous robotic systems for scientific discovery. Robot scientists do not supply definite answers to the discussed questions, but rather provide "proofs of concept" for various ideas. For example, it is not that robot scientists solve the realist/antirealist philosophical debate, but that when working with robot scientists one has to make a philosophical choice - in this case, to assume a realist view of science. There are still few systems for autonomous IEEE Technology and Society Magazine ∕ MARCH 2018