Editing Three Laws of Robotics (section)

===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the Second Law is modified to require cooperation instead of obedience; the Third Law is modified so it is no longer superseded by the Second (i.e., a "New Law" robot cannot be ordered to destroy itself); finally, Allen adds a Fourth Law which instructs the robot to do "whatever it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."