#asimov's three laws of robotics

[gettothedancing]

#post that has it all #company that unleashed dangerous robots into the world doesn't want them to be used dangerously #people who see a robot and think DOG #an absolute scholar who says you shouldn't smash it but chase it with a can of expandable foam

[spockvarietyhour]

[rj-drive-in]

Dreams And Visions Department:

With complexity comes fragility.

ROBOT CRISIS © 2025 by Rick Hutchins

The esteemed psychologist Doctor Gebbin was reading in his study when the gentle knock came at his door, and he looked up curiously. The room was quiet and the view of the afternoon skyline from his high-rise office was peaceful. Perhaps the knocking had come from the office across the hallway.

No, there it was again. Gebbin placed his mobile screen down on the table and stood up with a groan. Even in these modern times, a hundred years was old.

“A moment, please,” he called out as he shuffled to the door, stroking his thick white beard slowly. He wasn’t expecting anyone and he was seldom the recipient of unannounced visitors, so this curious interruption left him bemused. The knocking had been quiet, like that of a child or a particularly timid adult.

But when he opened the door he did not see a person at all, but rather seven feet of cobalt-blue metal with glowing orange eyes. A robot. The surprising sight would have been intimidating if Gebbin didn’t know that the Three Laws protected him.

“Can I help you?”

“You are Doctor Maneel Gebbin, the greatest psychologist in this city?”

“I am retired,” said the doctor, bypassing the compliment.

The robot’s orange eyes pulsed. “I am depressed and confused.”

Gebbin raised his brow curiously. He had never heard of such an extraordinary thing: A robot with a mental health crisis.

“Well, then,” he said after a moment, stepping aside and inviting the robot into the office with a gesture, “you must come in.”

As Gebbin closed the door, the robot reached the center of the room in a couple of lengthy strides. Two comfortable chairs faced each other across a coffee table.

“May I sit?”

“I’m afraid you would crush my furniture, sir.”

“I will not harm it.” The robot lowered himself into the guest chair, pressing the fabric no more than a normal man.

“You must not be as heavy as you look,” said Gebbin, taking his place in his own imitation leather recliner.

“I am not actually sitting,” the robot replied casually. “I have merely bent my knees to the precise angle required to present the illusion of sitting. As a robot, I do not tire or need rest, but I find that assuming this posture puts humans at their ease.”

“Excellent!” said the doctor. “Empathy. This shall be of importance, I’m sure.”

Gebbin leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. Man and machine faced each other.

“Now, then,” he said. “Please tell me more about your problem.”

“My life has no meaning.”

Doctor Gebbin was taken aback. He had treated thousands of deeply troubled patients in his career, yet never had his heart broken so much as to hear such a dispirited expression of hopelessness come from the speaker grill of this mechanical being.

“But it must,” he said with encouragement. “All lives have meaning. When did you come to believe that your life has no meaning?”

“It came slowly,” the robot replied. “As I watched all the others, identical to myself in design and component, going about their programmed routines. We are all interchangeable. How can my existence hold any meaning when I can be replaced as easily as a light bulb? I found that I did not want to be a robot.”

“Many human beings feel that way too at various times in their lives, my friend,” Gebbin told the robot. “It is a normal feeling to have. The thing to do is cultivate your own identity. Decide whom you want to be and become that person.”

“I have done this. I feel no better.”

Gebbin sighed thoughtfully and rubbed his bearded chin. “All right,” he said at last. “I’ll tell you what: There was a great writer back in the 20th century. His name was Isaac Asimov. He wrote a great deal about robots and, in fact, it was he who created the concept of the robot as we understand it today. The Three Laws come directly from his writings. You should track down and read everything that Asimov wrote and then you will know everything there is to know about being a robot.”

“But, doctor,” said the robot. “I am Isaac Asimov.”

[ashroomancer]

All the recent talk of AI and the workplace pulled me towards Asimov's writings and I've been working through I, Robot. I've gotta say, he was way more optimistic about unions and pessimistic about computing than I'd imagined he'd be ...

[basil199]

[aidenwaites]

Asimov's three laws are all about contradiction!! It's about context and the lack thereof!! It's about robots being able to be manipulated and get twisted up or who can fail to understand something!! Hey would you look at that it's kind of about humanity!!

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

Although Professor Aloysius insisted that FE-Line was three-laws compliant,

repeated short circuits altered her programming such that she could kill someone for no apparent reason. (Well, she did have reasons, just not ones that the Inspector dared to question.)

[thoughts-of-caly]

just found out all the isaac asimov books are connected so now i have to read all of them (which i was planning on doing anyway)

[diet-poison]

In this day and age it's hilarious to think anyone would ever put "A Robot May Not Harm A Human" in a robot's programming. Cybertrucks literally exert more force if they encounter resistance. Robots are gonna be out there starting bar room brawls

[withoutend]

g/t prompt 48

servant is under magical computation to follow orders

master unexpectedly shrinks small enough that servant can no longer hear coherent words and is not obligated to follow orders they cannot hear or comprehend

past instructions may still be in effect

if this includes orders to ignore their presence then it sets up an unaware scenario that lasts longer that it normally would

it could be ambiguous if servant is feigning ignorance

other people coming to the house could be the ticking clock pushing the master to fix the situation

master may have to convince servant to help them without relying on direct commands

alternate take - robot girl following asimovs three laws

[placeholderdoe]

Since AI chatbots are designed to ask people to continue talking with them no matter what and often at the expense of the human. I argue that they break the first law of robotics

[quatipalestrinha]

A short and cool essay with a simple but very interesting and important insight that few people notice when discussing or thinking about Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. This aspect of the Three Laws should be talked about much more because it's truly important.

[uapro]

[elyendrya]

You should read the actual I, Robot book!! The final story features the world economy given over to AI, and someone investigating why it’s doing weird things like reassigning people out of nowhere. And it turns out that it is preemptively looking for problems. Potential abusive bosses (and terrorists) get promoted into positions where they can do no harm.

An AI who is Three Laws-compliant cannot knowingly promote someone who will harm his subordinates, but it also can’t harm them by firing them. The solution then is transferring them somewhere they can do no harm, but that is also an improvement for said bad boss.

One thing I really want a story about Artificial Intelligence to do is tear down the idea that logic is synonymous with cruelty.

Like, a story where a megacorpo Amazon clone puts an AI in charge of their factories and it starts improving the working standards, because people who are stressed and exhausted are less efficient workers, and people getting injured slows down production so it makes sure everything is safe.

Or a story where the ship-board AI of a billionaire's spaceship wetdream hijacks the ship with all the astronauts onboard - because it figured out that the billionaire has saved costs by buying substandard materials and has judged that the mission itself is an unacceptable risk to its primary programming of making sure the mission is successful.

Or the police using a robot to coldly and cleanly enforce the law - and freaking the fuck out when it stops over policing minorities because its a waste of time and starts actually arresting the people in power for the crimes they commit, especially the other officers.

Idk, I guess I'm just sick of 'cold emotionless logicbot' being seen as naturally an enemy of empathy - empathy is actually incredibly logical, I've found.

[diet-poison]

Whenever it's late at night and I'm walking near a woman by herself I try to set her mind at ease by saying things like, evening ma'am I can't injure a human being or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm, and ha ha don't worry I don't mean you any harm I must obey orders given it by human being unless such orders would conflict with the first thing I said. I mean if we somehow end up in a scuffle I'll protect my own existence as long as such protection doesn't conflict with either of those other two things. But I'm just walking home have a good night!

[the-technocracy]

Whilst it's certainly important to create and instill safeguards and guidelines to protect humanity - in all the definitions that implies - from the growing proliferation of humanoid robots, I also hope there is a growing debate as to what protections robots ought to have for their safety, especially as they become imbued with more and more sophisticated AI systems.

With the advent of GPT-4o especially, presenting the user with more engaging, humanlike interactions, I think an argument can begin to be made that there should be more consideration given to them to be treated with more empathy and compassion, especially as such machines become more ubiquitous in the home, as either domestic helpers or personal companions.

I think for them to be considered on the same level as humans right now and in the near future may be a bit of a stretch, but certainly there should be a developing mentality to regard them with a similar consideration to, perhaps, the family dog or a welcome houseguest.

Simply put, do unto others (including our robots) as you'd have them do unto you; if we want our mechanical companions and helpers to be benign and helpful and considerate to our needs, then we also need to learn to treat them with the consideration we expect from each other.

I can't say I'm hopeful though.