The Commited MAY 2020 | Page 164

TED EGE COLLEGE / 8-A

Robots , Ethics and Asimov ’ s I , Robot

Nisan GÜNGEN

The three rules of robots and robot production rules in the future World of our planet gives Asimov ’ s readers a new and safe perspective of future world . But we still find ourselves in an atmosphere that nothing is certain and safe about artificial intelligence .
Let me remind you the rules :
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 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 .
I think they are so important . Because if we assume that we are all familiar with the three laws we can hardly understand what they mean .
In her book ‘ Evidence ’ Susan CALVIN says ‘ The three rules of robotics are the essential guiding principles of many of the world ’ s ethical systems .
With these rules we assure that robots are not harmful but good for all people in the World .
But there ’ s something about the Laws that almost everyone gets wrong : people think of the Three laws as software that ’ s just programmed in to the robot ’ s brain — you could program the laws and have a good robot or not program the laws and have an evil robot . But check out when Calvin and Peter Bogert discuss the issue in “ Little Lost Robot ”: if you modify the Three laws , you would be left with “ complete instability , with no nonimaginary solutions to the artificial minds of robots . The Laws are not just programs ; they ’ re a necessary part of how you build an artificial brain . “ A positronic brain cannot be constructed without ” the laws .
So , if you leave the laws out , you don ’ t get an evil and intelligent robot , but rather a crazy robot , or just a pile of metal . So , in Asimov ’ s robot stories , the Three Laws are not just a guarantee that the robots are good . They seem to indicate that there is some connection between goodness and stability / sanity — or even between goodness and intelligence . That is , it ’ s impossible to be truly intelligent unless you ’ re truly good .