Asimov's Laws of Robotics: Implications for Information Technology. 2

Abstract

For part 1 see ibid., Dec 1993, p53-61. Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics, first formulated in 1940. were primarily a literary device intended to support a series of stories about robot behavior. Over time, he found that the three Laws included enough apparent inconsistencies, ambiguity. and uncertainty to provide the conflicts required for a great many stories. In examining the ramifications of these laws. Asimov revealed problems that might later confront real roboticists and information technologists attempting to establish rules for the behavior of intelligent machines. As information technology evolves and machines begin to design and build other machines, the issue of human control gains greater significance. In time, human values tend to change; the rules reflecting these values, and embedded in existing robotic devices, may need to be modified. But if they are implicit rather than explicit, with their effects scattered widely across a system, they may not be easily replaceable. Asimov himself discovered many contradictions and eventually revised the Laws of Robotics.