Editing Three Laws of Robotics (section)

==Alterations==

===By Asimov===
Asimov's stories test his Three Laws in a wide variety of circumstances leading to proposals and rejection of modifications. Science fiction scholar [[James Gunn (author)|James Gunn]] writes in 1982, "The Asimov robot stories as a whole may respond best to an analysis on this basis: the ambiguity in the Three Laws and the ways in which Asimov played twenty-nine variations upon a theme".<ref>Gunn (1982).</ref> While the original set of Laws provided inspirations for multiple stories, Asimov introduced modified versions from time to time.

====First Law modified====
In "[[Little Lost Robot]]" several NS-2, or "Nestor", robots are created with only part of the First Law.<ref name="IROBOT"/> It reads:

{{quote|1. A robot may not harm a human being.}}

This modification is motivated by a practical difficulty as robots have to work alongside human beings who are exposed to low doses of radiation. Because their [[positronic brain]]s are highly sensitive to [[gamma ray]]s the robots are rendered inoperable by doses reasonably safe for humans. The robots are being destroyed attempting to rescue the humans who are in no actual danger but "might forget to leave" the irradiated area within the exposure time limit. 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.<ref name="IROBOT"/>

[[Gaia (Foundation universe)|Gaia]] is a planet with [[collective intelligence]] in the [[Foundation (book series)|''Foundation'' series]] which adopts a law similar to the First Law, and the Zeroth Law, as its philosophy:

{{quote|Gaia may not harm life or allow life to come to harm.}}

====Zeroth Law added====
Asimov once added a "[[Zero-based numbering|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. The robotic character [[R. Daneel Olivaw]] was the first to give the Zeroth Law a name in the novel ''[[Robots and Empire]]'';<ref name="BBCAsimov">{{cite web |title=Isaac Asimov |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A42253922 |publisher=BBC |access-date=11 November 2010 |archive-date=10 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100110060251/http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A42253922 |url-status=live }}</ref> however, the character Susan Calvin articulates the concept in the short story "[[The Evitable Conflict]]".

In the final scenes of the novel ''Robots and Empire'', [[R. Giskard Reventlov]] is the first robot to act according to the Zeroth Law. Giskard is [[telepathic]], like the robot Herbie in the short story "[[Liar! (short story)|Liar!]]", and tries to apply the Zeroth Law through his understanding of a more subtle concept of "harm" than most robots can grasp.<ref name="SC1">{{cite news |title=Sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov |url=http://archive.thedailystar.net/campus/2007/07/05/autprofile.htm |work=Campus Star |publisher=[[The Daily Star (Bangladesh)|The Daily Star]] |date=29 July 2007 |access-date=7 August 2016 |quote=Only highly advanced robots (such as Daneel and Giskard) could comprehend this law. |archive-date=8 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108132248/http://archive.thedailystar.net/campus/2007/07/05/autprofile.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> However, 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. The Zeroth Law is never programmed into Giskard's brain but instead is a rule he attempts to comprehend through pure [[metacognition]]. Although he fails – it ultimately destroys his positronic brain as he is not certain whether his choice will turn out to be for the ultimate good of humanity or not – he gives his successor R. Daneel Olivaw his telepathic abilities. Over the course of thousands of years Daneel adapts himself to be able to fully obey the Zeroth Law.{{fact|date=December 2023}}

Daneel originally formulated the Zeroth Law in both the novel ''[[Foundation and Earth]]'' (1986) and the subsequent novel ''[[Prelude to Foundation]]'' (1988):

{{quote|A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.}}

A condition stating that the Zeroth Law must not be broken was added to the original Three Laws, although Asimov recognized the difficulty such a law would pose in practice. Asimov's novel ''[[Foundation and Earth]]'' contains the following passage:

{{bquote|
Trevize frowned. "How do you decide what is injurious, or not injurious, to humanity as a whole?"

"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."}}

A translator incorporated the concept of the Zeroth Law into one of Asimov's novels before Asimov himself made the law explicit.<ref name="Brécard" /> Near the climax of ''[[The Caves of Steel]]'', [[Elijah Baley]] makes a bitter comment to himself thinking that the First Law forbids a robot from harming a human being. He determines that it must be so unless the robot is clever enough to comprehend that its actions are for humankind's long-term good. In Jacques Brécard's 1956 [[French language|French]] translation entitled ''[[:fr:Les Cavernes d'acier|Les Cavernes d'acier]]'' Baley's thoughts emerge in a slightly different way:

{{quote|A robot may not harm a human being, unless he finds a way to prove that ultimately the harm done would benefit humanity in general!<ref name="Brécard">{{cite book| last=Asimov| first=Isaac| title=The Caves of Steel| publisher=Doubleday| year=1952}}, translated by Jacques Brécard as {{cite book| title=Les Cavernes d'acier| publisher=J'ai Lu Science-fiction| year=1975| isbn=978-2-290-31902-4| title-link=:fr:Les Cavernes d'acier}}</ref>}}

====Removal of the Three Laws====
Three times during his writing career, Asimov portrayed robots that disregard the Three Laws entirely. The first case was a [[Vignette (literature)|short-short story]] entitled "[[First Law]]" and is often considered an insignificant "tall tale"<ref>Patrouch (1974), p. 50.</ref> or even [[apocrypha]]l.<ref>Gunn (1980); reprinted in Gunn (1982), p. 69.</ref> On the other hand, the short story "[[Cal (short story)|Cal]]" (from the collection ''[[Gold (Asimov)|Gold]]''), told by a first-person robot narrator, features a robot who disregards the Three Laws because he has found something far more important—he wants to be a writer. Humorous, partly autobiographical and unusually experimental in style, "Cal" has been regarded as one of ''Gold'''s strongest stories.<ref>{{cite web|last=Jenkins |first=John H. |work=Jenkins' Spoiler-Laden Guide to Isaac Asimov |url=http://preem.tejat.net/~tseng/Asimov/Stories/Story419.html |year=2002 |access-date=2009-06-26 |title=Review of "Cal" |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090911085355/http://preem.tejat.net/~tseng/Asimov/Stories/Story419.html |archive-date=2009-09-11 }}</ref> The third is a short story entitled "[[Sally (Asimov)|Sally]]" in which cars fitted with positronic brains are apparently able to harm and kill humans in disregard of the First Law. However, aside from the positronic brain concept, this story does not refer to other robot stories and may not be set in the same [[continuity (fiction)|continuity]].

The title story of the ''[[Robot Dreams (short story collection)|Robot Dreams]]'' collection portrays LVX-1, or "Elvex", a robot who enters a state of unconsciousness and dreams thanks to the unusual [[fractal]] construction of his positronic brain. In his dream the first two Laws are absent and the Third Law reads "A robot must protect its own existence".<ref name="RDA1">{{cite book|last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=Robot Dreams |year=1986 |author-link=Isaac Asimov |access-date=11 November 2010 |url=http://www.tcnj.edu/~miranda/classes/topics/reading/asimov.pdf |quote=“But you quote it in incomplete fashion. The Third Law is ‘A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.’ ” “Yes, Dr. Calvin. That is the Third Law in reality, but in my dream, the Law ended with the word ‘existence’. There was no mention of the First or Second Law.” |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316134042/http://www.tcnj.edu/~miranda/classes/topics/reading/asimov.pdf |archive-date=16 March 2012 }}</ref>

Asimov took varying positions on whether the Laws were optional: although in his first writings they were simply carefully engineered safeguards, in later stories Asimov stated that they were an inalienable part of the mathematical foundation underlying the positronic brain. Without the basic theory of the Three Laws the fictional scientists of Asimov's universe would be unable to design a workable brain unit. This is historically consistent: the occasions where roboticists modify the Laws generally occur early within the stories' chronology and at a time when there is less existing work to be re-done. In "Little Lost Robot" Susan Calvin considers modifying the Laws to be a terrible idea, although possible,<ref name="BBC2">{{cite web |title='The Complete Robot' by Isaac Asimov |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A455898 |publisher=BBC |access-date=11 November 2010 |date=3 November 2000 |quote=The answer is that it had had its First Law modified}}</ref> while centuries later Dr. Gerrigel in ''[[The Caves of Steel]]'' believes it to require a century just to redevelop the positronic brain theory from scratch.

The character Dr. Gerrigel uses the term "Asenion" to describe robots programmed with the Three Laws. The robots in Asimov's stories, being Asenion robots, are incapable of knowingly violating the Three Laws but, in principle, a robot in science fiction or in the real world could be non-Asenion. "Asenion" is a misspelling of the name Asimov which was made by an editor of the magazine ''Planet Stories.''<ref>Asimov (1979), pp. 291–2.</ref> Asimov used this obscure variation to insert himself into ''The Caves of Steel'' just like he referred to himself as "Azimuth or, possibly, Asymptote" in ''[[Thiotimoline]] to the Stars'', in much the same way that [[Vladimir Nabokov]] appeared in ''[[Lolita]]'' [[anagram]]matically disguised as "Vivian Darkbloom".

Characters within the stories often point out that the Three Laws, as they exist in a robot's mind, are not the written versions usually quoted by humans but abstract mathematical concepts upon which a robot's entire developing consciousness is based. This concept is unclear in earlier stories depicting rudimentary robots who are only programmed to comprehend basic physical tasks, where the Three Laws act as an overarching safeguard, but by the era of ''The Caves of Steel'' featuring robots with human or beyond-human intelligence the Three Laws have become the underlying basic ethical worldview that determines the actions of all robots.

===By other authors===

====Roger MacBride Allen's trilogy====
In the 1990s, [[Roger MacBride Allen]] wrote a trilogy which was set within Asimov's fictional universe. Each title has the prefix "Isaac Asimov's" as Asimov had approved Allen's outline before his death.{{citation needed|date=June 2011}} These three books, ''[[Isaac Asimov's Caliban|Caliban]]'', ''[[Isaac Asimov's Inferno|Inferno]]'' and ''[[Isaac Asimov's Utopia|Utopia]]'', introduce a new set of the Three Laws. The so-called New Laws are similar to Asimov's originals with the following differences: the First Law is modified to remove the "inaction" clause, the same modification made in "Little Lost Robot"; the Second Law is modified to require cooperation instead of obedience; the Third Law is modified so it is no longer superseded by the Second (i.e., a "New Law" robot cannot be ordered to destroy itself); finally, Allen adds a Fourth Law which instructs the robot to do "whatever it likes" so long as this does not conflict with the first three laws. The philosophy behind these changes is that "New Law" robots should be partners rather than slaves to humanity, according to [[Fredda Leving]], who designed these [[New Law Robots]]. According to the first book's introduction, Allen devised the New Laws in discussion with Asimov himself. However, the ''Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' says that "With permission from Asimov, Allen rethought the Three Laws and developed a new set."<ref name="EoSF1">{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of science fiction |year=2005 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-0-8160-5924-9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=icA3oLIZEeMC&pg=PA7 |author=[[Don D'Ammassa]] |page=7 |chapter=Allen, Roger MacBride |access-date=2016-05-18 |archive-date=2024-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240925011020/https://books.google.com/books?id=icA3oLIZEeMC&pg=PA7 |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Jack Williamson's "With Folded Hands"====
[[Jack Williamson]]'s novelette "[[With Folded Hands]]" (1947), later rewritten as the novel ''[[The Humanoids]]'', deals with robot servants whose prime directive is "To Serve and Obey, And Guard Men From Harm". While Asimov's robotic laws are meant to protect humans from harm, the robots in Williamson's story have taken these instructions to the extreme; they protect humans from everything, including unhappiness, stress, unhealthy lifestyle and all actions that could be potentially dangerous. All that is left for humans to do is to sit with folded hands.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.umich.edu/~engb415/literature/cyberzach/Williamson/human.html |title=The Humanoids |publisher=Umich.edu |access-date=2015-03-28}}</ref>

====''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.

====Robot Mystery series====
Set between ''[[The Robots of Dawn]]'' and ''[[Robots and Empire]]'', [[Mark W. Tiedemann]]'s ''Robot Mystery'' trilogy updates the ''Robot''–''Foundation'' saga with robotic minds housed in computer mainframes rather than humanoid bodies.{{clarify|not sure of the significance of this to the article – needs explaining via a reliable source|date=June 2011}} The 2002 Aurora novel has robotic characters debating the moral implications of harming cyborg lifeforms who are part artificial and part biological.<ref name="IAATiedemann1">{{cite book |title=Isaac Asimov's Aurora (ebook) |publisher=Byron Press Visual Publications |author=MARK W. TIEDEMANN |page=558 |quote="In short", Bogard said, "not all people are human"}}</ref>

One should not neglect Asimov's own creations in these areas such as the Solarian "viewing" technology and the machines of ''[[The Evitable Conflict]]'' originals that Tiedemann acknowledges. ''Aurora'', for example, terms the Machines "the first RIs, really". In addition the ''Robot Mystery'' series addresses the problem of [[nanotechnology]]:<ref name="tiedemann">{{cite web| url=http://www.sffworld.com/interview/94p0.html| title=Interview with Mark Tiedemann| publisher=Science Fiction and Fantasy World| date=16 August 2002| access-date = 2006-06-12}}</ref> building a positronic brain capable of reproducing human cognitive processes requires a high degree of miniaturization, yet Asimov's stories largely overlook the effects this miniaturization would have in other fields of technology. For example, the police department card-readers in ''The Caves of Steel'' have a capacity of only a few kilobytes per square centimeter of storage medium. ''Aurora'', in particular, presents a sequence of historical developments which explains the lack of nanotechnology — a partial [[retcon]], in a sense, of Asimov's timeline.

====Randall Munroe====
[[Randall Munroe]] has discussed the Three Laws in various instances, but possibly most directly by one of his comics entitled [https://xkcd.com/1613/ The Three Laws of Robotics] which imagines the consequences of every distinct ordering of the existing three laws.

====Additional laws====
Authors other than Asimov have often created extra laws. 

The 1974 [[Lyuben Dilov]] novel, ''Icarus's Way'' (a.k.a., ''The Trip of Icarus'') introduced a Fourth Law of robotics: "A robot must establish its identity as a robot in all cases." 
Dilov gives reasons for the fourth safeguard in this way: "The last Law has put an end to the expensive aberrations of designers to give psychorobots as humanlike a form as possible. And to the resulting misunderstandings..."<ref>{{cite book
| last = Dilov
| first = Lyuben (aka Lyubin, Luben or Liuben)
| author-link = Lyuben Dilov
| title = Пътят на Икар
| year = 2002
| publisher = Захари Стоянов
| isbn = 978-954-739-338-7}}</ref>

A fifth law was introduced by [[Nikola Kesarovski]] in his short story "The Fifth Law of Robotics". This fifth law says: "A robot must know it is a robot." 
The plot revolves around a murder where the forensic investigation discovers that the victim was killed by a hug from a humaniform robot that did not establish for itself that it was a robot.<ref>{{cite book
| last = Кесаровски
| first = Никола
| author-link = Nikola Kesarovski
| title = Петият закон
| year = 1983
| publisher = Отечество
}}</ref> The story was reviewed by [[Valentin D. Ivanov]] in SFF review webzine ''The Portal''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://sffportal.net/2011/06/lawful-little-country-the-bulgarian-laws-of-robotics/#more-2376 |title=Lawful Little Country: The Bulgarian Laws of Robotics {{!}} The Portal<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=2011-06-25 |archive-date=2011-10-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006052447/http://sffportal.net/2011/06/lawful-little-country-the-bulgarian-laws-of-robotics/#more-2376 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

For the 1986 tribute anthology, ''[[Foundation's Friends]],'' [[Harry Harrison (writer)|Harry Harrison]] wrote a story entitled, "The Fourth Law of Robotics". This Fourth Law states: "A robot must reproduce. As long as such reproduction does not interfere with the First or Second or Third Law."

In 2013 [[Hutan Ashrafian]] proposed an additional law that considered the role of artificial intelligence-on-artificial intelligence or the relationship between robots themselves – the so-called AIonAI law.<ref>{{cite journal |last= Ashrafian |first= Hutan| year= 2014|title= AIonAI: A Humanitarian Law of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics |journal= Science and Engineering Ethics |volume= 21 |issue= 1 |pages= 29–40 | doi= 10.1007/s11948-013-9513-9 |pmid= 24414678 |s2cid= 2821971}}</ref> This sixth law states: "All robots endowed with comparable human reason and conscience should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."