logoalt Hacker News

DaiPlusPlusyesterday at 8:05 PM1 replyview on HN

It's been a long time since I read through my father's Asimov book collection, so pardon my question: but how are these rules considered "laws", exactly? IIRC, USRobotics marketed them as though they were unbreakable like the laws of physics, but the positronic brains were engineered to comply with them - which while better than inlining them with training or inference input - but this was far from foolproof.


Replies

ceejayozyesterday at 8:10 PM

They're "laws" in the same sense as aircraft have flight control laws.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_control_modes

There are instances of robots entirely lacking the Three Laws in Asimov's works, as well as lots of stories dealing with the loopholes that inevitably crop up.