Speedy In Runaround

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1. I personally was slightly confused because the three laws of robotics were presented as three immutable laws, yet somehow the laws within a robot’s positronic brain could be given situational precedence over each other. My understanding is that the first law ensuring human safety and safeguarding against robotic apocalypse was paramount, following the second law which ensured obedience amongst all robot kind, followed by a desire for survival. Then by being laws there were no exceptions, they were immutable, robots were obligated to keep their thought processes within this rigid paradigm and this paradigm only. But, when Speedy in Runaround gets trapped in his infinite loop the issue is that the two laws have “similar charge” and weigh equally in …show more content…

We can push at Rule 2 and pull at Rule 3 and we can’t get anywhere -- we can only change the position of balance. We’ve got to get outside both rules” (Asimov). If the robot can change the value of each law, even situationally, the laws are fundamentally flawed. They’re no longer laws, but rules and their order is just a guideline. What’s to say there isn’t a situation where the preservation of robotics and the future of man means the destruction of man or the complete disregard of rule one (i.e. I Robot starring Will Smith). The fact that the Narrator and Pollard suggest that the Robot and they can even think outside this paradigm suggests future danger and higher mental capabilities. Speedy and other more complex robots are capable of consideration and judgment, by default or not, and we do not know the extent each robot maintains its three cardinal values by which it judges upon. It may judge to disregard the laws entirely. What defines a human being? What if a human being was to strike out at a robot without order, would the robots be allowed to strike back to preserve its own existence? Is a robot therefore allowed to break human customs and civilities and laws because they’re not a part of the three

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