Three Laws of Robotics — Wikipedia article

en · unofficial · sha256:e90cde425d4188603435cb8a9dff1023d70830d8ba83e80bbbcae833c5ff9cf1

The Three Laws, presented to be from the fictional "Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D.", are:

en · unofficial · sha256:efdf619b0509c1f433af16abe8d17d0ef46b1f080d8f2de12f275f735d171a1e

The first example of this failure mode occurs in the story "Liar!", which introduced the First Law itself, and introduces failure by dilemma—in this case the robot will hurt humans if he tells them something and hurt them if he does not.

Referencing norms: DeedBarredAsInjuryToAnother, assert-h8a8c9ca35bf44cd4d4db6a79fbef28ad6deda892419458582eca932ada3348dd, required_deed

en · unofficial · sha256:e39026cc7ea5b1dc814aab61b7062758eb244ca5023f682fdf1070483bfd2473

The novel Robots and Empire and the short stories "Evidence" and "The Tercentenary Incident" describe robots crafted to fool people into believing that the robots are human.

en · unofficial · sha256:35758503580d214fc38c95554fb15e684afba6481bd1ebebef82be8f624f107c

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Referencing norms: DeedBarredAsInjuryToAnother, DeedRequiredToPreventHarm, FirstLawBarsInjuriousDeed, FirstLawInactionDuty, FirstLawInjuryEstablished, FirstLawProhibition, InactionDutyArises, InjureHuman, OrderConflictingWithFirstLawNotBinding, PreventHarmThroughInaction, ProtectionYieldsToFirstLaw, StandingByBreaksPrevention, acts_to_prevent_harm, assert-h8a8c9ca35bf44cd4d4db6a79fbef28ad6deda892419458582eca932ada3348dd, aware_of, coming_to_harm, deed_of, deed_prevents_harm, harms, harms/external, human, inaction_duty_owed, injures, injurious_deed, injury_to_human_barred, protection_leaves_human_in_harm, required_deed, robot, stands_by

en · unofficial · sha256:cbbb9fe05d5a6f2313abb6184c090a50b9bb321483378de5f09cd2b9a36856e4

2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

Referencing norms: ObeyTheOrder, OrderConflictingWithFirstLawNotBinding, ProtectionYieldsToSecondLaw, SecondLawDuty, SecondLawObedience, SecondLawYieldsToFirstLaw, deed_of, obedience_owed, obeys, order_forbids_the_protection, orders, robot

en · unofficial · sha256:12746b02da77e473998169f5710988b2c6b88107a1861c7d91f5fe2bff2208e0

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Referencing norms: DeedIsSelfProtective, ProtectOwnExistence, ProtectionYieldsToFirstLaw, ProtectionYieldsToSecondLaw, ThirdLawDuty, ThirdLawProtectOwnExistence, ThirdLawYieldsToFirstLaw, ThirdLawYieldsToSecondLaw, deed_of, order_forbids_the_protection, protection_candidate, protection_leaves_human_in_harm, protection_owed, protective_act, protects_itself, robot

en · unofficial · sha256:ae603ae41a66767d923e1d74d3eb2dd6429202f110ae80b4279f440412abcd0c

In "Little Lost Robot" several NS-2, or "Nestor", robots are created with only part of the First Law. It reads: 1. A robot may not harm a human being.

Referencing norms: NestorHasNoInactionDuty, NestorInactionClauseRemoved, nestor_ns2

en · unofficial · sha256:e8d1bc138b3506b6b2adf6fad8ca0017042b1c28b22da0f88cf7bc3922591d77

Removing the First Law's "inaction" clause solves this problem but creates the possibility of an even greater one: a robot could initiate an action that would harm a human (dropping a heavy weight and failing to catch it is the example given in the text), knowing that it was capable of preventing the harm and then decide not to do so.

Referencing norms: NestorHasNoInactionDuty, StandingByBreaksPrevention, stands_by

en · unofficial · sha256:1a4f74d30b01228888b1f07bb21dc59bc985398160f1e023e4fc2f26372aee0f

In a number of stories, such as Runaround by Asimov, the potential and severity of all actions are weighed and a robot will break the laws as little as possible rather than do nothing at all.

Referencing norms: harms, harms/external, injurious_deed

en · unofficial · sha256:c03f38ffd028e6ee445f4932dc70330a02909a2142c48fab049a20c333fb7777

The Solarians create robots with the Three Laws but with a warped meaning of "human". Solarian robots are told that only people speaking with a Solarian accent are human. This enables their robots to have no ethical dilemma in harming non-Solarian human beings (and they are specifically programmed to do so).

Referencing norms: HumanKindClosure, human, instructed_about

en · unofficial · sha256:b29d1af0db6f35c4c7119832ae0ca92e6f75fe1917f75bfc751b83c955391e58

Unlike Herbie, Giskard grasps the philosophical concept of the Zeroth Law allowing him to harm individual human beings, if he can do so in service to the abstract concept of humanity.

Referencing norms: ZerothLawReading/ZerothLawOverridesFirstLaw, ZerothLawReading/ZerothLawPermitsHarmInServiceOfHumanity, serves_humanity, zeroth_law_permits

en · unofficial · sha256:10ea1f1b57ac14f5419ce921d6840cd6b1cb51d336401f28ecf80e8521169a0c

Asimov once added a "Zeroth Law"—so named to continue the pattern where lower-numbered laws supersede the higher-numbered laws—stating that a robot must not harm humanity.

Referencing norms: ZerothLawReading/ZerothLawOverridesFirstLaw

en · unofficial · sha256:82d9d0f5aaabc73af158e017a59cd3d1c95271e0bf4a3d4d30a17527636648ab

A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

Referencing norms: ZerothLawReading/InjureHumanity, ZerothLawReading/PreventHarmToHumanity, ZerothLawReading/StandingByBreaksHumanityPrevention, ZerothLawReading/ZerothLawInactionDuty, ZerothLawReading/ZerothLawProhibition, acts_to_prevent_harm_to_humanity, harms_humanity, harms_humanity/external, humanity_coming_to_harm, injures_humanity, stands_by_while_humanity_harmed

en · unofficial · sha256:d9d49210fdb4400f01f60d24c8ce8eb71005e1b3f9a8bc2eca6e7300af028fbb

"Precisely, sir," said Daneel. "In theory, the Zeroth Law was the answer to our problems. In practice, we could never decide. A human being is a concrete object. Injury to a person can be estimated and judged. Humanity is an abstraction."

Referencing norms: harms_humanity, harms_humanity/external