The Three Laws Of Robotics: Case Study

Improved Essays
1.0 Introduction
As robots get smarter and more widespread, independent cars are bound to end up making life-or-death decisions in unpredictable places, thus taking over or at least seeming to assume moral authority. Weapons systems currently have human operators “in the loop”, simply as they get more advanced, it will be possible to shift to “on the loop” operation, with machines carrying out orders autonomously.
As that occurs, they will be faced with ethical dilemmas. Should a drone fire on a house where a quarry is recognized to be hiding, which may also be sheltering civilians? Should a driverless car swerve to avoid pedestrians if that means running into other vehicles or endangering its occupants? Should a robot involved in disaster recovery tell people the truth about what is happening if that risks doing a scare? Such questions have guided to the emersion of the discipline of “machine ethics”, which purports to give machines the ability to pull in such choices appropriate, in other language, to distinguish right from wrong. 2.0 Background of case study An operator, Bart Matthews was killed by his assembly line robot at Cybernetics, Inc, Silicon Heights. An investigation into the cause of the accident led authorities to the conclusion that Randy Samuels, a Silicon Techtronic's Inc programmer, was responsible for the erratic and violent robot behaviour with his software module, which in turn lead to the death by decapitation of Bart Matthews. The victim was crushed to death when the robot that he was operating malfunctioned and started to wave its robot arm violently by throwing him against a wall and crushing his skull Samuels wrote the particular piece of computer program responsible for the robot malfunction regarding to the indictment. The project physicist provided the hand written formula and each formula described the motion of the robot in one direction. Which are east-west, north-south and up –down. Bill Park a professor of physics at Silicon Valley University confirmed that these equations could be used to describe the motion of a robot arm and checked the program code written by Samuel whether
…show more content…
The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", even they had been foreshadowed in a few earlier stories (Norman, 2015). The "Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D." is being quoted with The Three Laws that listed the rules as shown as below:
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 Laws.
These forms an organizing principle and unifying theme for Asimov's robotic-based fiction, appearing in his Robot series, the stories linked to it, and his Lucky Starr series of youthful-adult fiction (Norman, 2015). The Laws are incorporated into nearly all of the Positronic robots appearing in his fable, and cannot be bypassed, being designated as a safety feature. Many of Asimov's robot-focused stories involve robots behaving in strange and counterintuitive ways as an unintended result of how the robot uses the Three Laws to the situation in which it sees itself (Norman, 2015). Other authors working in Asimov's fictional universe have taken them and references, often parodies, appear throughout science fiction as easily as in other

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    They say our moral reasoning is the glue that holds us together, but with robots we don't need to think about how to do things or what to do. This means we have to know the difference between between right and wrong but with robots doing all the work we won't need to think ,robots don't have moral reasoning so they could do something wrong and not care about if it hurts use or not. Without moral reasoning we would be all over the place not caring about others. Like the monster in Frankenstein he didn't know right from wrong so when he killed that little boy he didn't understand what he had done.…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    in 1942, author Isaac Asimov wrote a landmark science fiction book introducing three laws of robotics entitled “I, Robot.” These laws set the groundwork for a multitude of books, movies and other media including the modern movie “I, Robot” based loosely on one of Asimov’s short stories. The popularity of this sub culture highlights the curiosity of AI as we expand our technology. The recurring fear that something man made could overtake us has been one explored often and frequently, which is why Carr’s work comes as no surprise. Carr cites sociologist Daniel Bell when it comes to the use of the technologies we create: “as we use...the tools that extend our mental rather than our physical capacities — we inevitably begin to take on the qualities of those technologies.”…

    • 873 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Looking at both stories that uses the element of allusion is that they both similarly show that when humans started to command the robots what they wanted them do they both refuse their orders and does only what they wanted to do. For instance, in the story “The Veldt” when George commands the nursery room to display the theme of Aladdin, it responds only in silence which is mysterious because the nursery room was programmed to play an image that a human would think in their mental brain. Also in the story “Reason” Cutie was also programmed to follow what Donovan and Powell say based on the second law of robotics which is to and unquestionably listen to what a person tells them to do.…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    As you may know that there was a shooting down in Dallas Texas. Were a guy shot and killed police officers and the police used a robot to confront the subject and people questioned whether or not police should use robots to confront the subject. I say that the police should use the robots to protect themselves, protect others in the area, and the police wouldn’t have to use a K-9 in a bad situation. Police should use the robots to protect themselves so they can come home to their loved ones and keep peace out on the streets day and night. Using the robot to confront the subjects if there is a gun fight it will keep the police out of the way and keep them safer.…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    A hot and controvertial topic in the medical field is the use of robots in surgical procedures. A large contribution to its popularity are due to some fallacies pre established by society, other "educated" arguments look at technical aspects of the robots. Quite a few of the controversies revolve around the topic of labor and how humans with families will benefit, other controversies evaluate the effectiveness and necessity of an autonomous surgery. Lastly there are simply personal questions that people have about robots. Are robots as deadly or hostile as they are in Hollywood?…

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the movie I, Robot we are introduced to a long debated philosophical question: “What makes a human being human?”. Is the essence of mankind the fact that we are biologically unique among the myriad of different species on this planet? Is it the fact that we seem to have transcended our baser needs in order to try and make the world fit us as opposed to us fitting into the world around us? Is it perhaps that we have what people would call a “soul”? Or is it possibly that we were said to have either evolved from our animal counterparts, the primates, in order to be what we consider better?…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Scientists used to fear the thought of artificial intelligence, but now they use it in their everyday lives (Levy 1598). Many may be frightened by the thought of working alongside robots, but some are seeing it as an opportunity to grow. Many people believe for a computer to grow to an almost human like figure they must get past the process of just following a system. John Searle believes that computers cannot become human like because they do not understand the meaning of what they are doing…

    • 1627 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Drones Research Paper

    • 1573 Words
    • 7 Pages

    computer can ascertain a positive combat identification of ground targets—assuming that the data being gathered is geo-registered. Once the computer can determine a positive identification—either a manned or unmanned aircraft—can engage a target. But at the end of the day, the computer is still making the determination that a contact is hostile. And there have been systems in the past such as the Northrop AGM-136 Tacit rainbow anti radiation cruise missile that was canceled in 1991. A later example is the Lockheed Martin Low-Cost Autonomous Attack System.…

    • 1573 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The world of artificial intelligence is advancing at a rapid rate with robots becoming increasingly human like everyday. Advancements in these technologies requires us as humans to understand the benefits and the ramifications of introducing this scarcely understood technology into our everyday lives. Blindly allowing a new form of intelligence could be potentially catastrophic if not fully understood as the stability of these technologies are yet to be understood. Within Isaac Asimov's story “Liar!” he attempts to humanize the robot to distance it from the Frankenstein Complex.…

    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    But if she’s machine, she’s a machine” This shows that what Dolly did would have been right thing to do if it was a human, and she would have gotten away from this as a case of self-defense. This makes us think whether Kant’s moral law theory of deontology apply to robots or not. Robots are usually to follow orders, but we make robots that learn from human and can adapt the nature. In that case, as giving preference to moral law, Dolly did the right thing by not doing the duty.…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the genre of science fiction, authors and directors create new worlds of fantastic possibilities. Some of these worlds take place in our future, theorizing about things that are to come, while others take us to galaxies far, far away. Regardless of where or when the story takes place, particular conventions are always certain. One such convention is that when a new technology is central to the plot, the technology will cause harm. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan demonstrates this through the building of the Genesis project, Jurassic Park through the revival of dinosaurs, and I, Robot through the creation of robots and the “three laws”.…

    • 1906 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For example, they must create privacy at computer. So that, the hacker will not easy to hack the computer and change the robot system. They also need have a professional ethics such as delivering bug-free software to prevent the case happening. Besides that, based on the problem above. They must have E-T-H-I-C-S to solve the problems.…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    All the scenarios presented might be unlikely to occur; however, “they illuminate hidden or latent problems in normal cases” (“The Robot Car of Tomorrow May Just Be Programmed to Hit You, 3). The hidden problem being self-driving cars do not possess innate ethics, therefore they must be programmed, a task which might be impossible due to the obscure line between right and wrong.…

    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    And ultimately, everyone will cease to feel safe in our own world. This might cause some problems, such as riots. To conclude this paper, I would like to say that robots are not monsters. But, they are different and we are not used to them.…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Imagination Vs Reality

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages

    With the advancement in technology, many things that were deemed impossible in the past is now made possible. This can be seen from areas such as robotics technology where this technology is not widely present in the past. In the past, robots are mostly seen in books and films, where they are completely fictional and do not exist in society. However, in this day and age, our robotics industry is growing so rapidly where we have robots that can manage household chores to robots that can provide aid during a natural disaster. Besides the advancement of technology, our reality is drastically different from the past due to society’s changing mindset.…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays