Analysis of the Three Laws of Robotics

It all started a long time ago.   In the 19 th century to be exact.   For it was in the year 1818 that an artificial man was born in the world of literature.   He was the creation of the mad scientist Frankenstein.   As the story goes, the creation does not only become an artificial man, but also a monster.   A monster that turns against his own creator, helping to create the impression upon society that "there are some things Man was not meant to know." This point of view would continue to exist until Asimov made his way into the spotlight.

Fast-forward 121 years later and we arrive at a play called Rossum's Universal Robots.   It was a landmark in science fiction history in 1921, for the word robot had been born.   However, the robot in Rossum's story was no different from the character Frankenstein.   It too turned on its creator only this time it was worse.   The robots turned on all of humanity, not just his creator. For the next two-decades, many science fiction writers used such a plot, solidifying the idea that robots were monsters.   The recycling of this plot is what inspired Asimov to create his own robot stories. Asimov, like many science fiction readers were simply bored reading essentially the same story over and over again.

So, in 1939, Asimov sat down and envisioned robots as rational thinkers created by engineers, not mad scientists. Robbie , as it would come to be a year later did just that.   It portrayed a robot was a caregiver; a plot only used a handful of times then.   With the help of his publisher, Asimov defined the safeguards that he envisioned engineers would implement.   And in 1942, Asimov had completed them in its final form.

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

It was another landmark in science fiction history.   Not only for the creation of the Three Laws of Robotics, but also of the word robotics itself.   Asimov wrote proudly in his introduction to The Naked Sun : "The Three Laws of Robotics first appear on page 100 of that issue. I looked that up, because where they appear there is the very first use of the word 'robotics' in the history of the world, as far as I know." Asimov then continued to produce four more short stories involving robots, eventually helping him to publish his first book, Pebble in the Sky .   From there it was a chain reaction, I,   Robot, The Caves of Steel and the Foundation series were born.   With the help of the Three Laws of Robotics, Asimov had established himself as an emerging author among readers and publishers.

Author: Roland Saekow (saekow@sbcglobal.net)