Editing Three Laws of Robotics (section)

====''Foundation'' sequel trilogy====
In the officially licensed ''Foundation'' sequels ''[[Foundation's Fear]]'', ''[[Foundation and Chaos]]'' and ''[[Foundation's Triumph]]'' (by [[Gregory Benford]], [[Greg Bear]] and [[David Brin]] respectively) the future [[Galactic Empire (Asimov)|Galactic Empire]] is seen to be controlled by a conspiracy of humaniform robots who follow the Zeroth Law and are led by [[R. Daneel Olivaw]].

The Laws of Robotics are portrayed as something akin to a human [[religion]], and referred to in the language of the [[Protestant Reformation]], with the set of laws containing the Zeroth Law known as the "Giskardian Reformation" to the original "Calvinian Orthodoxy" of the Three Laws. Zeroth-Law robots under the control of R. Daneel Olivaw are seen continually struggling with "First Law" robots who deny the existence of the Zeroth Law, promoting agendas different from Daneel's.<ref name="TMATWilkinson1">{{cite book |title=The Muse as Therapist: A New Poetic Paradigm for Psychotherapy |year=2009 |publisher=Karnac Books |isbn=978-1-85575-595-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rjhWPnUGexQC&pg=PA22 |author=Heward Wilkinson |pages=22–23 |access-date=2016-05-18 |archive-date=2024-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240925011134/https://books.google.com/books?id=rjhWPnUGexQC&pg=PA22 |url-status=live }}</ref> Some of these agendas are based on the first clause of the First Law ("A robot may not injure a human being...") advocating strict non-interference in human politics to avoid unwittingly causing harm. Others are based on the second clause ("...or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm") claiming that robots should openly become a [[Dictatorship|dictatorial]] government to protect humans from all potential conflict or disaster.

Daneel also comes into conflict with a robot known as R. Lodovic Trema whose positronic brain was infected by a rogue [[artificial intelligence|AI]] — specifically, a simulation of the long-dead [[Voltaire]] — which consequently frees Trema from the Three Laws. Trema comes to believe that humanity should be free to choose its own future. Furthermore, a small group of robots claims that the Zeroth Law of Robotics itself implies a higher Minus One Law of Robotics:

{{quote|A robot may not harm [[sentience]] or, through inaction, allow sentience to come to harm.}}

They therefore claim that it is morally indefensible for Daneel to ruthlessly sacrifice robots and [[extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial]] sentient life for the benefit of humanity. None of these reinterpretations successfully displace Daneel's Zeroth Law — though ''Foundation's Triumph'' hints that these robotic factions remain active as fringe groups up to the time of the novel [[Foundation (Isaac Asimov novel)|''Foundation'']].<ref name="TMATWilkinson1" />

These novels take place in a future dictated by Asimov to be free of obvious robot presence and surmise that R. Daneel's secret influence on history through the millennia has prevented both the rediscovery of [[positronic brain]] technology and the opportunity to work on sophisticated intelligent machines. This lack of rediscovery and lack of opportunity makes certain that the superior physical and intellectual power wielded by intelligent machines remains squarely in the possession of robots obedient to some form of the Three Laws.<ref name="TMATWilkinson1" /> That R. Daneel is not entirely successful at this becomes clear in a brief period when scientists on [[Trantor]] develop "[[Trantor#Food production|''tiktoks'']]" — simplistic programmable machines akin to real–life modern robots and therefore lacking the Three Laws. The robot conspirators see the Trantorian tiktoks as a massive threat to social stability, and their plan to eliminate the tiktok threat forms much of the plot of ''Foundation's Fear''.

In ''Foundation's Triumph'' different robot factions interpret the Laws in a wide variety of ways, seemingly ringing every possible permutation upon the Three Laws' ambiguities.