Asimov's Laws

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From the SL4 Lexicon:

Asimov Laws:

Famous science fiction writer Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics", a plot device invented in the 1940s. They are;

  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.

Amazingly, there are still people who take these laws seriously and suppose they would work as a viable strategy for AI creation. Asimov Laws are far too simplistic, open to interpretation, unfairly biased, and adversarial to qualify as a serious engineering strategy for AI morality. Asimov Laws are also predicated on the false assumptions that

  • 1) AIs cannot become independent moral agents, let alone possess Kinder-Than-Human morality,
  • 2) AIs will always be mechanical, in appearance and in thought,
  • 3) creating a human-friendly AI is a lot like coercing a human into being human-friendly.

The modern-day field of AI Friendliness is an attempt to go beyond Asimov Laws and similar ideas, creating workable strategies for safe AI Goal Systems. See also Design-Contingent Philosophy, Friendliness, Friendship Architecture, Goal System.


The following is a list of threads from the Categorized SL4 Archive that discuss Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.




  • ethics Metaqualia (Tue May 11 2004 - 11:29:26 MDT)
    • Re: ethics Damien Broderick (Tue May 11 2004 - 16:58:35 MDT)
    • Re: ethics fudley (Fri May 14 2004 - 09:48:49 MDT)
      • Re: ethics Tim Duyzer (Fri May 14 2004 - 11:28:36 MDT)
        • Re: ethics Robin Lee Powell (Fri May 14 2004 - 12:04:32 MDT)
          • Re: ethics Damien Broderick (Fri May 14 2004 - 12:56:53 MDT)
        • Re: ethics Bill Hibbard (Fri May 14 2004 - 13:53:03 MDT)
          • Re: ethics Philip Sutton (Fri May 14 2004 - 20:31:24 MDT)
            • Re: ethics Bill Hibbard (Sat May 15 2004 - 05:19:00 MDT)
              • Re: ethics Philip Sutton (Sat May 15 2004 - 10:25:10 MDT)
                • Re: ethics Michael Wilson (Sat May 15 2004 - 12:03:56 MDT)
                • Re: ethics Bill Hibbard (Sat May 15 2004 - 12:04:53 MDT)
    • Re: ethics fudley (Fri May 14 2004 - 21:51:00 MDT)
    • Re: ethics Aubrey de Grey (Wed May 19 2004 - 09:26:33 MDT)
      • Re: ethics Peter C. McCluskey (Wed May 19 2004 - 13:05:25 MDT)
        • Re: ethics Michael Wilson (Wed May 19 2004 - 14:11:07 MDT)
      • RE: ethics Christopher Healey (Wed May 19 2004 - 10:56:34 MDT)
        • RE: ethics fudley (Wed May 19 2004 - 11:30:34 MDT)
          • RE: ethics Michael Wilson (Wed May 19 2004 - 12:44:33 MDT)
            • Re: ethics Samantha Atkins (Wed May 19 2004 - 23:20:48 MDT)
          • RE: ethics Dani Eder (Thu May 20 2004 - 09:01:59 MDT)
          • RE: ethics Christopher Healey (Wed May 19 2004 - 13:55:23 MDT)
            • Re: ethics Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (Wed May 19 2004 - 14:52:38 MDT)
              • RE: ethics Chris Healey (Wed May 19 2004 - 16:55:31 MDT)
              • Re: ethics Samantha Atkins (Wed May 19 2004 - 23:42:22 MDT)
              • Re: ethics Thomas Buckner (Thu May 20 2004 - 19:26:17 MDT)
                • Re: ethics Michael Roy Ames (Thu May 20 2004 - 23:24:57 MDT)
                  • Re: ethics Keith Henson (Fri May 21 2004 - 06:02:42 MDT)
              • Re: ethics Aubrey de Grey (Wed May 19 2004 - 15:31:48 MDT)
                • Re: ethics Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (Wed May 19 2004 - 16:56:26 MDT)
                  • Re: ethics Samantha Atkins (Thu May 20 2004 - 00:27:52 MDT)
                    • Re: ethics Eliezer Yudkowsky (Fri May 21 2004 - 14:48:40 MDT)
                      • Re: ethics Samantha Atkins (Sat May 22 2004 - 02:06:56 MDT)
                      • Re: ethics Marc Geddes (Sat May 22 2004 - 03:22:06 MDT)
                  • Re: ethics Aubrey de Grey (Fri May 21 2004 - 05:33:24 MDT)
                    • Re: ethics Eliezer Yudkowsky (Fri May 21 2004 - 16:18:35 MDT)
                      • RE: ethics Ben Goertzel (Fri May 21 2004 - 17:43:39 MDT)
                      • Re: ethics Samantha Atkins (Sat May 22 2004 - 02:29:39 MDT)
                      • Re: ethics Aubrey de Grey (Mon May 24 2004 - 12:46:34 MDT)
                        • Re: ethics Peter C. McCluskey (Tue May 25 2004 - 17:03:31 MDT)
            • Re: ethics Samantha Atkins (Wed May 19 2004 - 23:31:19 MDT)
        • Re: ethics Samantha Atkins (Wed May 19 2004 - 23:04:29 MDT)
        • RE: ethics Aubrey de Grey (Wed May 19 2004 - 12:36:00 MDT)




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