Asimov’s Three Rules of Robotics
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.
Isaac Asimov who gave up teaching biochemistry to become a highly prolific science-fiction novelist and populariser of science, publishing well over 300 books, produced these three fundamental rules in the story ‘Runaround’ in I Robot (1950).
The word robot by the way comes from the Czech robata, meaning ‘hard work’ or ’servitude’. It was popularised in the 1920s after Karl Capek’s play R.U.R. featuring Rossum’s Universal Robots was produced in English.
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