"The unique feature of Asimov's robots is the Three Laws of Robotics, hardwired in a robot's positronic brain, with which all robots in his fiction must comply, and which ensure that the robot does not turn against its creators"
"""Victory Unintentional"" has positronic robots obeying the Three Laws, but also a non-human civilization on Jupiter."
"""Let's Get Together"" features humanoid robots, but from a different future (where the Cold War is still in progress), and with no mention of the Three Laws"
"The Robot series is a series of 37 science fiction short stories and six novels by American writer Isaac Asimov, featuring positronic robots."
"""Mother Earth"" (1948) - short story, in which no individual robots appear, but positronic robots are part of the background"
"Most of Asimov's robot short stories, which he began to write in 1939, are set in the first age of positronic robotics and space exploration."
"The stories were not initially conceived as a set, but rather all feature his positronic robotsindeed, there are some inconsistencies among them, especially between the short stories and the novels."
"It was the Zoromes, then, who were the spiritual ancestors of my own ""positronic robots,"" all of them, from Robbie to R. Daneel."
"The 1989 anthology Foundation's Friends included the positronic robot stories ""Balance"" by Mike Resnick, ""Blot"" by Hal Clement, ""PAPPI"" by Sheila Finch, ""Plato's Cave"" by Poul Anderson, ""The Fourth Law of Robotics"" by Harry Harrison and ""Carhunters of the Concrete Prairie"" by Robert Sheckley."
"Bicentennial Man (1999) was the first theatrical movie adaptation of any Asimov story or novel and was based on both Asimov's original short story of the same name (1976) and its novel expansion, The Positronic Man (1993)"
"The book also contains the short story in which Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics first appear, which had large influence on later science fiction and had impact on thought on ethics of artificial intelligence as well."
"Its plot incorporates elements of ""Little Lost Robot"",[8] some of Asimov's character names and the Three Laws."
"In 2004 The Saturday Evening Post said that I, Robot's Three Laws ""revolutionized the science fiction genre and made robots far more interesting than they ever had been before."""
"In Aliens, a 1986 movie, the synthetic person Bishop paraphrases Asimov's First Law in the line: ""It is impossible for me to harm, or by omission of action allow to be harmed, a human being."""
"An episode of The Simpsons entitled ""I D'oh Bot"" (2004) has Professor Frink build a robot named ""Smashius Clay"" (also named ""Killhammad Aieee"") that follows all three of Asimov's laws of robotics."
"Leela once told Bender to ""cover his ears"" so that he would not hear the robot-destroying paradox which she used to destroy Robot Santa (he punishes the bad, he kills people, killing is bad, therefore he must punish himself), causing a total breakdown; additionally, Bender has stated that he is Three Laws Safe."
"The Indian science fiction film Endhiran, released in 2010, refers to Asimov's three laws for artificial intelligence for the fictional character Chitti: The Robot."
"When a scientist takes in the robot for evaluation, the panel enquires whether the robot was built using the Three Laws of Robotics."
"Upon their publication in this collection, Asimov wrote a framing sequence presenting the stories as Calvin's reminiscences during an interview with her about her life's work, chiefly concerned with aberrant behaviour of robots and the use of ""robopsychology"" to sort out what is happening in their positronic brain."
"Two months after I read it, I began 'Robbie', about a sympathetic robot, and that was the start of my positronic robot series."
"The positronic brain, which Asimov named his robots' central processors, is what powers Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as other Soong type androids. "
"Positronic brains have been referenced in a number of other television shows including Doctor Who, Once Upon a Time... Space, Perry Rhodan, The Number of the Beast, and others."
"In ""Someday"" there are non-positronic computers which tell stories and do not obey the Three Laws."
"In ""Sally"" there are positronic brain cars who can damage men or disobey without problems. No other kinds of robots are seen, and there is no mention of the Three Laws."
"In "". . . That Thou Art Mindful of Him"" robots are created with a very flexible Three Laws management, and these create little, simplified robots with no laws that actually act against the Three Laws of Robotics."
"Andrew uses the money to pay for bodily upgrades, keeping himself in perfect shape, but never has his positronic brain altered."
The first scene of the story is explained as Andrew seeks out a robotic surgeon to perform an ultimately fatal operation: altering his positronic brain so that it will decay with time.
"his story is set within Asimov's Foundation universe, which also includes his earlier Susan Calvin positronic robot tales."
"Sir reveals that U.S. Robots has ended a study on generalized pathways and creative robots, frightened by Andrew's unpredictability."
"However, the robot refuses, as the operation is harmful and violates the First Law of Robotics, which says a robot may never harm a human being."
"The Positronic Man is a 1992 novel by American writers Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, based on Asimov's 1976 novelette ""The Bicentennial Man""."
In the twenty-first century the creation of the positronic brain leads to the development of robot laborers and revolutionizes life on Earth. 
"In The Positronic Man, the trends of fictional robotics in Asimov's Robot series (as outlined in the book I, Robot) are detailed as background events, with an indication that they are influenced by Andrew's story."
"Only when Andrew allows his positronic brain to ""decay"", thereby willfully abandoning his immortality, is he declared a human being."
"This story is set within Asimov's Foundation universe, which also includes his earlier Susan Calvin positronic robot tales."
"No individual robots appear, but positronic robots are part of the background."
"Earth faces a confrontation with its colonies, the ""Outer Worlds."" A historian looks back and sees the problem beginning a century and a half earlier, when Aurora got permission to ""introduce positronic robots into their community life."""
"The only witness is a malfunctioning house robot that has suffered damage to its positronic brain because it allowed harm to be done to a human, in violation of the First Law."
"Ultimately, it is revealed that Delmarre's neighbor, roboticist Jothan Leebig, was working on putting positronic brains in spaceships."
"Leebig poisoned Gruer by tricking his robots, using his knowledge of positronic brains, into putting poison into Gruer's drink."
"This would negate the First Law, as such ships would not recognize that humans usually inhabit ships, and would therefore be able to attack and destroy other ships without regard for their crews."
"R. Daneel and R. Giskard discover the roboticists' plan and attempt to stop Amadiro; but are hampered by the First Law of Robotics,"
"Daneel and Giskard, meanwhile, have inferred an additional Zeroth Law of Robotics: A robot may not injure humanity, or through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."
"It might enable them to overcome Amadiro, if they can use their telepathic perception of humanity to quell the inhibitions of the first law"
"After Amadiro admits their plans, Giskard alters Amadiro's brain (using the newly created Zeroth Law); but in so doing, threatens his own."
"Under the stress of having violated the First Law (in accordance with the Zeroth Law, but with the predicted benefit to humanity being uncertain), R. Giskard himself suffers a soon-fatal malfunction of his positronic brain but manages to confer his telepathic ability upon R. Daneel."
"Dave Langford reviewed Robots and Empire for White Dwarf #85, and stated that ""Asimov always perks up when chopping logic with the Three Laws of Robotics, and here his robots come up with a Fourth, or rather Zeroth, Law."
"In the novel, Asimov depicts the transition from his earlier Milky Way Galaxy, inhabited by both human beings and positronic robots, to his Galactic Empire."
"Gladia is accompanied by the positronic robots R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Reventlov, both the former property of their creator, Dr. Han Fastolfe, who bequeathed them to Gladia in his will. R. Giskard has secret telepathic powers of which only R. Daneel knows."
"The electrical aspect of robots is used for movement (through motors), sensing (where electrical signals are used to measure things like heat, sound, position, and energy status) and operation (robots need some level of electrical energy supplied to their motors and sensors in order to activate and perform basic operations)"
"Actuators are the ""muscles"" of a robot, the parts which convert stored energy into movement."
"Scientists from several European countries and Israel developed a prosthetic hand in 2009, called SmartHand, which functions like a real oneallowing patients to write with it, type on a keyboard, play piano and perform other fine movements"
"As the robot falls to one side, it would jump slightly in that direction, in order to catch itself."
"A quadruped was also demonstrated which could trot, run, pace, and bound"
"A more advanced way for a robot to walk is by using a dynamic balancing algorithm, which is potentially more robust than the Zero Moment Point technique, as it constantly monitors the robot's motion, and places the feet in order to maintain stability"
"In some of Asimov's other works, he states that the first use of the word robotics was in his short story Runaround (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1942),[4][5] where he introduced his concept of The Three Laws of Robotics"
"Its limb control system allowed it to walk with the lower limbs, and to grip and transport objects with hands, using tactile sensors"
"There are three different types of robotic programs: remote control, artificial intelligence and hybrid."
"Robots that use artificial intelligence interact with their environment on their own without a control source, and can determine reactions to objects and problems they encounter using their preexisting programming."
"Several robots have been made which can walk reliably on two legs, however, none have yet been made which are as robust as a human."
"Many other robots have been built that walk on more than two legs, due to these robots being significantly easier to construct."
"Walking robots can be used for uneven terrains, which would provide better mobility and energy efficiency than other locomotion methods."
"Typically, robots on two legs can walk well on flat floors and can occasionally walk up stairs."
"Several robots, built in the 1980s by Marc Raibert at the MIT Leg Laboratory, successfully demonstrated very dynamic walking. "
"Initially, a robot with only one leg, and a very small foot could stay upright simply by hopping."
" As the robot falls to one side, it would jump slightly in that direction, in order to catch itself."
"A more advanced way for a robot to walk is by using a dynamic balancing algorithm, which is potentially more robust than the Zero Moment Point technique, as it constantly monitors the robot's motion, and places the feet in order to maintain stability."
"This technique was recently demonstrated by Anybots' Dexter Robot,[99] which is so stable, it can even jump"
Perhaps the most promising approach utilizes passive dynamics where the momentum of swinging limbs is used for greater efficiency
"It has been shown that totally unpowered humanoid mechanisms can walk down a gentle slope, using only gravity to propel themselves."
"Using this technique, a robot need only supply a small amount of motor power to walk along a flat surface or a little more to walk up a hill"
One approach mimics the movements of a human climber on a wall with protrusions; adjusting the center of mass and moving each limb in turn to gain leverage.
"Science fiction authors also typically assume that robots will eventually be capable of communicating with humans through speech, gestures, and facial expressions, rather than a command-line interface."
"Evolutionary robots is a methodology that uses evolutionary computation to help design robots, especially the body form, or motion and behavior controllers."
"Direct kinematics or forward kinematics refers to the calculation of end effector position, orientation, velocity, and acceleration when the corresponding joint values are known."
"Inverse kinematics refers to the opposite case in which required joint values are calculated for given end effector values, as done in path planning."
"Once all relevant positions, velocities, and accelerations have been calculated using kinematics, methods from the field of dynamics are used to study the effect of forces upon these movements."
"Normal human gait is a complex process, which happens due to co-ordinated movements of the whole of the body, requiring the whole of Central Nervous System - the brain and spinal cord, to function properly."
The most common cause for gait impairment is due to an injury of one or both legs.
"Gait training is not simply re-educating a patient on how to walk, but also includes an initial assessment of their gait cycle - Gait analysis, creation of a plan to address the problem, as well as teaching the patient on how to walk on different surfaces."
"Assistive devices and splints (orthosis) are often used in gait training, especially with those who have had surgery or an injury on their legs, but also with those who have balance or strength impairments as well."
"Although gait training with parallel bars, treadmills and support systems can be beneficial, the long-term aim of gait training is usually to reduce patients' dependence on such technology in order to walk more in their daily lives."
"A gait cycle is defined as the progression of movements that occurs before one leg can return to a certain position during walking, or ambulation."
The gait cycle is studied in two phases - Swing and stance phase.
Any gait training addressing a gait abnormality starts with a proper gait analysis.
"The gait consists of a series of repetitive movements of the whole body during locomotion and is studied considering that each gait cycle repeats over itself, which is almost correct considering normal subjects."
"The basic two phases are swing and stance phases, depending on whether the leg is free to swing or is in contact with the ground during the phase of gait studied."
The stance phase is approximately 60% of the gait cycle and takes about 0.6 seconds to complete at a normal walking speed.
"The swing phase occurs when the foot is not in contact with the ground, and constitutes about 40% of the gait cycle."
The two point gait pattern requires a high level of coordination and balance
"Recently, electromechanical devices such as the Hocoma Lokomat robot-driven gait orthosis have been introduced with the intention of reducing the physical labour demands on therapists."
"Treadmill training, with or without a body-weight support, is an emerging therapy and is being used with stroke patients to improve kinematic gait parameters"
Research has shown that this form of gait training demonstrates a more normal walking pattern without the compensatory movements commonly associated with stroke
Determining the movement of a robot so that its end-effectors move from an initial configuration to a desired configuration is known as motion planning
"The movement of a kinematic chain, whether it is a robot or an animated character, is modeled by the kinematics equations of the chain."
Movement of one element requires the computation of the joint angles for the other elements to maintain the joint constraints.
"For example, inverse kinematics allows an artist to move the hand of a 3D human model to a desired position and orientation and have an algorithm select the proper angles of the wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints."
"Isaac Asimov considered the issue in the 1950s in his I, Robot. At the insistence of his editor John W. Campbell Jr., he proposed the Three Laws of Robotics to govern artificially intelligent systems."
"Much of his work was then spent testing the boundaries of his three laws to see where they would break down, or where they would create paradoxical or unanticipated behavior."
"A panel convened by the United Kingdom in 2010 revised Asimov's laws to clarify that AI is the responsibility either of its manufacturers, or of its owner/operator."
"The movies Bicentennial Man and A.I. deal with the possibility of sentient robots that could love. I, Robot explored some aspects of Asimov's three laws."
The Three Laws of Robotics (often shortened to The Three Laws or known as Asimov's Laws) are a set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov.
"The Three Laws, quoted from the ""Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D."", are: First Law -A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm., Second Law - A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law., Third Law -A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law"
"The Laws are incorporated into almost all of the positronic robots appearing in his fiction, and cannot be bypassed, being intended as a safety feature."
Many of Asimov's robot-focused stories involve robots behaving in unusual and counter-intuitive ways as an unintended consequence of how the robot applies the Three Laws to the situation in which it finds itself.
The original laws have been altered and elaborated on by Asimov and other authors.
"Asimov also added a fourth, or zeroth law, to precede the others: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."
"The Three Laws, and the zeroth, have pervaded science fiction and are referred to in many books, films, and other media."
"Asimov attributes the Three Laws to John W. Campbell, from a conversation that took place on 23 December 1940."
Campbell claimed that Asimov had the Three Laws already in his mind and that they simply needed to be stated explicitly.
"ccording to his autobiographical writings, Asimov included the First Law's ""inaction"" clause because of Arthur Hugh Clough's poem ""The Latest Decalogue"" (text in Wikisource), which includes the satirical lines ""Thou shalt not kill, but needst not strive / officiously to keep alive""."
"Although Asimov pins the creation of the Three Laws on one particular date, their appearance in his literature happened over a period."
"He wrote two robot stories with no explicit mention of the Laws, ""Robbie"" and ""Reason""."
"He assumed, however, that robots would have certain inherent safeguards. ""Liar!"", his third robot story, makes the first mention of the First Law but not the other two."
"When these stories and several others were compiled in the anthology I, Robot, ""Reason"" and ""Robbie"" were updated to acknowledge all the Three Laws, though the material Asimov added to ""Reason"" is not entirely consistent with the Three Laws as he described them elsewhere"
"In his short story ""Evidence"" Asimov lets his recurring character Dr. Susan Calvin expound a moral basis behind the Three Laws."
"Calvin points out that human beings are typically expected to refrain from harming other human beings (except in times of extreme duress like war, or to save a greater number) and this is equivalent to a robot's First Law"
"Likewise, according to Calvin, society expects individuals to obey instructions from recognized authorities such as doctors, teachers and so forth which equals the Second Law of Robotics."
Finally humans are typically expected to avoid harming themselves which is the Third Law for a robot.
"The plot of ""Evidence"" revolves around the question of telling a human being apart from a robot constructed to appear human – Calvin reasons that if such an individual obeys the Three Laws he may be a robot or simply ""a very good man"""
"Asimov later wrote that he should not be praised for creating the Laws, because they are ""obvious from the start, and everyone is aware of them subliminally."
The Laws just never happened to be put into brief sentences until I managed to do the job.
"I have my answer ready whenever someone asks me if I think that my Three Laws of Robotics will actually be used to govern the behavior of robots, once they become versatile and flexible enough to be able to choose among different courses of behavior."
"My answer is, ""Yes, the Three Laws are the only way in which rational human beings can deal with robotsor with anything else."""
Asimov's stories test his Three Laws in a wide variety of circumstances leading to proposals and rejection of modifications.
"Science fiction scholar James Gunn writes in 1982, ""The Asimov robot stories as a whole may respond best to an analysis on this basis: the ambiguity in the Three Laws and the ways in which Asimov played twenty-nine variations upon a theme"""
"Removing the First Law's ""inaction"" clause solves this problem but creates the possibility of an even greater one: a robot could initiate an action that would harm a human (dropping a heavy weight and failing to catch it is the example given in the text), knowing that it was capable of preventing the harm and then decide not to do so."
"Gaia is a planet with collective intelligence in the Foundation series which adopts a law similar to the First Law, and the Zeroth Law, as its philosophy: Gaia may not harm life or allow life to come to harm."
"Three times during his writing career, Asimov portrayed robots that disregard the Three Laws entirely."
"On the other hand, the short story ""Cal"" (from the collection Gold), told by a first-person robot narrator, features a robot who disregards the Three Laws because he has found something far more importanthe wants to be a writer."
"The third is a short story entitled ""Sally"" in which cars fitted with positronic brains are apparently able to harm and kill humans in disregard of the First Law."
"However, aside from the positronic brain concept, this story does not refer to other robot stories and may not be set in the same continuity."
Without the basic theory of the Three Laws the fictional scientists of Asimov's universe would be unable to design a workable brain unit.
"The character Dr. Gerrigel uses the term ""Asenion"" to describe robots programmed with the Three Laws."
"The robots in Asimov's stories, being Asenion robots, are incapable of knowingly violating the Three Laws but, in principle, a robot in science fiction or in the real world could be non-Asenion."
"Characters within the stories often point out that the Three Laws, as they exist in a robot's mind, are not the written versions usually quoted by humans but abstract mathematical concepts upon which a robot's entire developing consciousness is based."
"This concept is largely fuzzy and unclear in earlier stories depicting very rudimentary robots who are only programmed to comprehend basic physical tasks, where the Three Laws act as an overarching safeguard, but by the era of The Caves of Steel featuring robots with human or beyond-human intelligence the Three Laws have become the underlying basic ethical worldview that determines the actions of all robots."
"These three books, Caliban, Inferno and Utopia, introduce a new set of the Three Laws."
"The so-called New Laws are similar to Asimov's originals with the following differences: the First Law is modified to remove the ""inaction"" clause, the same modification made in ""Little Lost Robot""; the Second Law is modified to require cooperation instead of obedience; the Third Law is modified so it is no longer superseded by the Second (i.e., a ""New Law"" robot cannot be ordered to destroy itself); finally, Allen adds a Fourth Law which instructs the robot to do ""whatever it likes"" so long as this does not conflict with the first three laws."
"The Laws of Robotics are portrayed as something akin to a human religion, and referred to in the language of the Protestant Reformation, with the set of laws containing the Zeroth Law known as the ""Giskardian Reformation"" to the original ""Calvinian Orthodoxy"" of the Three Laws"
"Randall Munroe has discussed the Three Laws in various instances, but possibly most directly by one of his comics entitled The Three Laws of Robotics which imagines the consequences of every distinct ordering of the existing three laws."
"The Laws of Robotics presume that the terms ""human being"" and ""robot"" are understood and well defined."
It takes as its concept the growing development of robots that mimic non-human living things and given programs that mimic simple animal behaviours which do not require the Three Laws.
Both are to be considered alternatives to the possibility of a robot society that continues to be driven by the Three Laws as portrayed in the Foundation series.
"In Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn, a novel unrelated to the Robot series but featuring robots programmed with the Three Laws, John Bigman Jones is almost killed by a Sirian robot on orders of its master."
Advanced robots in fiction are typically programmed to handle the Three Laws in a sophisticated manner.
"For example, the First Law may forbid a robot from functioning as a surgeon, as that act may cause damage to a human; however, Asimov's stories eventually included robot surgeons"
"Asimov's Three Laws-obeying robots (Asenion robots) can experience irreversible mental collapse if they are forced into situations where they cannot obey the First Law, or if they discover they have unknowingly violated it."
"The first example of this failure mode occurs in the story ""Liar!"", which introduced the First Law itself, and introduces failure by dilemmain this case the robot will hurt humans if he tells them something and hurt them if he does not."
"This failure mode, which often ruins the positronic brain beyond repair, plays a significant role in Asimov's SF-mystery novel The Naked Sun."
"As such, a robot is capable of taking an action which can be interpreted as following the First Law, thus avoiding a mental collapse."
"Robots and artificial intelligences do not inherently contain or obey the Three Laws; their human creators must choose to program them in, and devise a means to do so."
"Even the most complex robots currently produced are incapable of understanding and applying the Three Laws; significant advances in artificial intelligence would be needed to do so, and even if AI could reach human-level intelligence, the inherent ethical complexity as well as cultural/contextual dependency of the laws prevent them from being a good candidate to formulate robotics design constraints"
"On the other hand, Asimov's later novels The Robots of Dawn, Robots and Empire and Foundation and Earth imply that the robots inflicted their worst long-term harm by obeying the Three Laws perfectly well, thereby depriving humanity of inventive or risk-taking behaviour."
"The futurist Hans Moravec (a prominent figure in the transhumanist movement) proposed that the Laws of Robotics should be adapted to ""corporate intelligences""  the corporations driven by AI and robotic manufacturing power which Moravec believes will arise in the near future."
"In contrast, the David Brin novel Foundation's Triumph (1999) suggests that the Three Laws may decay into obsolescence."
"Brin even portrays R. Daneel Olivaw worrying that, should robots continue to reproduce themselves, the Three Laws would become an evolutionary handicap and natural selection would sweep the Laws away."
"Although the robots would not be evolving through design instead of mutation because the robots would have to follow the Three Laws while designing and the prevalence of the laws would be ensured,[53] design flaws or construction errors could functionally take the place of biological mutation."
"Asimov himself believed that his Three Laws became the basis for a new view of robots which moved beyond the ""Frankenstein complex"""
Stories written by other authors have depicted robots as if they obeyed the Three Laws but tradition dictates that only Asimov could quote the Laws explicitly.
"Asimov believed the Three Laws helped foster the rise of stories in which robots are ""lovable"" – Star Wars being his favorite example."
"Where the laws are quoted verbatim, such as in the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode ""Shgoratchx!"", it is not uncommon for Asimov to be mentioned in the same dialogue as can also be seen in the Aaron Stone pilot where an android states that it functions under Asimov's Three Laws."
Asimov was delighted with Robby and noted that Robby appeared to be programmed to follow his Three Laws.
The film Bicentennial Man (1999) features Robin Williams as the Three Laws robot NDR-114 (the serial number is partially a reference to Stanley Kubrick's signature numeral)
"Williams recites the Three Laws to his employers, the Martin family, aided by a holographic projection. The film only loosely follows the original story."
"Harlan Ellison's proposed screenplay for I, Robot began by introducing the Three Laws, and issues growing from the Three Laws form a large part of the screenplay's plot development"
"A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov."
"When Asimov wrote his first robot stories in 1939 and 1940, the positron was a newly discovered particle, and so the buzz word ""positronic"" added a scientific connotation to the concept."
"Asimov's 1942 short story ""Runaround"" elaborates his fictional Three Laws of Robotics, which are ingrained in the positronic brains of nearly all of his robots."
"Positronic brains, as such, are a kind of brain made of positrons – small particles which help in the transmission of various thoughts and impulses to the brain and help the brain's cognition relay the selected emotion or solution."
Asimov remained vague about the technical details of positronic brains except to assert that their substructure was formed from an alloy of platinum and iridium.
"The focus of Asimov's stories was directed more towards the software of robotssuch as the Three Laws of Roboticsthan the hardware in which it was implemented, although it is stated in his stories that to create a positronic brain without the Three Laws, it would have been necessary to spend years redesigning the fundamental approach towards the brain itself."
"Within his stories of robotics on Earth and their development by U.S. Robots, Asimov's positronic brain is less of a plot device and more of a technological item worthy of study."
A positronic brain cannot ordinarily be built without incorporating the Three Laws; any modification thereof would drastically modify robot behavior.
The Three Laws are also a bottleneck in brain sophistication
"Very complex brains designed to handle world economy interpret the First Law in an expanded sense to include humanity as opposed to a single human; in Asimov's later works like Robots and Empire this is referred to as the ""Zeroth Law"""
"At least one brain constructed as a calculating machine, as opposed to being a robot control circuit, was designed to have a flexible, childlike personality so that it was able to pursue difficult problems without the Three Laws inhibiting it completely."
The sophistication of positronic circuitry renders a brain so small that it could comfortably fit within the skull of an insect.
"It offers speed and capacity improvements over traditional positronic designs, but the strong influence of tradition make robotics labs reject Anshaw's work."
"Only one roboticist, Fredda Leving, chooses to adopt gravitonics, because it offers her a blank slate on which she could explore alternatives to the Three Laws"
"When Queen Allura of Venus (Mari Blanchard) puts Orville (Lou Costello) to a lie detector test in an ESP-enabled crystal chair, she states that it is ""based on the principle of the Positronic Brain."""
"In a mini story entitled ""Night Vision!"" in Annual #6 of the Marvel comic, writer Scot Edelman refers to the brain of the synthezoid ""The Vision"" as positronic."
"Human space colonists examine ""dead"" Daleks and, upon their re-activation, conjecture as to ""what sort of positronic brain must this device possess""."
"However, the Daleks are actually organic life-forms that were encased in robotic shells, and thus do not possess the purported positronic brain and, in any case, do not obey the Three Laws of Robotics."
"In the seventeenth season (1979–80) story ""The Horns of Nimon"", the fourth incarnation of the Doctor, played by Tom Baker, recognizes the Labyrinth-like building complex that serves as the lair of the Nimons as resembling both physically and functionally a ""giant positronic circuit""."
The creation was said to be controlled by a positronic brain.
"Several fictional characters in Star Trek: The Next GenerationLieutenant Commander Data, his ""mother"" Julianna Soong Tainer, his daughter Lal, and his brothers Lore and B-4are androids equipped with positronic brains created by Dr. Noonien Soong."
"""Positronic implants"" were used to replace lost function in Vedek Bareil's brain in the Deep Space 9 episode ""Life Support""."
"In the German science fiction series Perry Rhodan (written starting in 1961), positronic brains (German: Positroniken) are the main computer technology; for quite a time they are replaced by the more powerful Syntronics, but those stop working due to the increased Hyperimpedance."
The most powerful positronic brain is called NATHAN and covers large parts of the Earth's moon.
"Many of the larger computers (including NATHAN) as well as the race of Posbis combine a biological component with the positronic brain, giving them sentience and creativity."
"The robots in the 2004 film I, Robot (loosely based upon several of Isaac Asimov's stories) also have positronic brains."
"Sonny, one of the main characters from the film, has two separate positronic brainsthe second being a positronic ""heart""so it has choices open to him the other robots in the film do not have."
"The film also features a colossal positronic brain, VIKI, who is bound by the Three Laws."
Sonny also has the possibility of being able to develop emotions and a sense of right and wrong independent of the Three Laws of Robotics; it has the ability to choose not to obey them.
"The robots in the 1999 film Bicentennial Man (based on one of Asimov's stories) also have positronic brains, including the main character Andrew, an NDR series robot that starts to experience human characteristics such as creativity."
"Only when Andrew allows his positronic brain to ""decay"", thereby willfully abandoning his immortality, is he declared a human being."
"Twiki and Crichton, two robotic characters who appear in the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century television series, were equipped with positronic brains."
"Crichton recited Asimov's ""Three Laws of Robotics"" upon activation."
"In 1989, in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Season One episode The Corpse Vanishes, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo read an issue of Tiger Bot magazine featuring an interview with the Star Trek character, Data. They then lament the fact that they don't have positronic brains like him."
"In the second episode, Spectreman's robot head is found and viewers discover he is a robot with a positronic brain."
"The game Stellaris features Positronic Artificial Intelligence as a possible research goal, which is employed with ""Synthetics"" (sentient robotic beings) and sentient computers for usage in research, administration, combat etc."
"In the game Space Station 13, players can research and construct positronic brains, and place them inside of AIs, cyborgs and even mechas"
"A neural pathway is the connection formed by axons that project from neurons to make synapses onto neurons in another location, to enable a signal to be sent from one region of the nervous system to another."
A neural pathway connects one part of the nervous system to another using bundles of axons called tracts.
"Shorter neural pathways are found within grey matter in the brain, whereas longer projections, made up of myelinated axons, constitute white matter."
"In the hippocampus there are neural pathways involved in its circuitry including the perforant pathway, that provides a connectional route from the entorhinal cortex[2] to all fields of the hippocampal formation, including the dentate gyrus, all CA fields (including CA1),[3] and the subiculum."
"Note that the ""old"" name was primarily descriptive, evoking the pyramids of antiquity, from the appearance of this neural pathway in the medulla oblongata."
"The axon of a nerve cell is, in general, responsible for transmitting information over a relatively long distance, therefore, most neural pathways are made up of axons."
"Neural pathways in the basal ganglia in the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop, are seen as controlling different aspects of behaviour."
It has been proposed that the dopamine system of pathways is the overall organiser of the neural pathways that are seen to be parallels of the dopamine pathways.
Dopamine is provided both tonically and phasically in response to the needs of the neural pathways.
Miguel Nicolelis and colleagues demonstrated that the activity of large neural ensembles can predict arm position
Their BCI used high-density electrocorticography to tap neural activity from a patient's brain and used deep learning methods to synthesize speech.
The use of BMIs has also led to a deeper understanding of neural networks and the central nervous system.
"Beyond BCI systems that decode neural activity to drive external effectors, BCI systems may be used to encode signals from the periphery."
"These sensory BCI devices enable real-time, behaviorally-relevant decisions based upon closed-loop neural stimulation."
"The participant imagined moving his hand to write letters, and the system performed handwriting recognition on electrical signals detected in the motor cortex, utilizing hidden Markov models and recurrent neural networks for decoding."
This proximity to motor cortex underlies the Stentrode's ability to measure neural activity.
"The Stentrode communicates neural activity to a battery-less telemetry unit implanted in the chest, which communicates wirelessly with an external telemetry unit capable of power and data transfer."
"Their study achieved word error rates of 3% (a marked improvement from prior publications) utilizing an encoder-decoder neural network, which translated ECoG data into one of fifty sentences composed of 250 unique words."
The current focus of research is user-to-user communication through analysis of neural signals
Researchers have built devices to interface with neural cells and entire neural networks in cultures outside animals.
"After collection, the cortical neurons were cultured in a petri dish and rapidly began to reconnect themselves to form a living neural network."
Flexible neural interfaces have been extensively tested in recent years in an effort to minimize brain tissue trauma related to mechanical mismatch between electrode and tissue
"Walking robots simulate human or animal gait, as a replacement for wheeled motion"
"A major goal in this field is in developing capabilities for robots to autonomously decide how, when, and where to move."
"However, coordinating numerous robot joints for even simple matters, like negotiating stairs, is difficult."
"Walking robots simulate human or animal gait, as a replacement for wheeled motion."
"The robot functioned effectively, walking in several gait patterns and crawling with its high DoF legs"
"Multiple legs allow several different gaits, even if a leg is damaged, making their movements more useful in robots transporting objects."
This is because an ideal rolling (but not slipping) wheel loses no energy
"Coordinated, sequential mechanical action having the appearance of a traveling wave is called a metachronal rhythm or wave, and is employed in nature by ciliates for transport, and by worms and arthropods for locomotio"
"Brachiation allows robots to travel by swinging, using energy only to grab and release surfaces"
This motion is similar to an ape swinging from tree to tree.
The two types of brachiation can be compared to bipedal walking motions (continuous contact) or running (ricochetal).
"Continuous contact is when a hand/grasping mechanism is always attached to the surface being crossed; ricochetal employs a phase of aerial ""flight"" from one surface/limb to the next."
"Thus robots of this nature need to be small, light, quick, and possess the ability to move in multiple locomotive modes."
Robots can also be designed to perform locomotion in multiple modes.
"Several robots capable of basic locomotion in a single mode have been invented but are found to lack several capabilities, hence limiting their functions and applications."
"In addition, Pteromyini are able to exhibit multi-modal locomotion due to the membrane that connects the fore and hind legs which also enhances their gliding ability."
Pteromyini are able to boost their gliding ability due to the numerous physical attributes they possess.
"The common vampire bats are known to possess powerful modes of terrestrial locomotion, such as jumping, and aerial locomotion such as gliding."
"Between the two modes of locomotion, there are three bones that are shared."
"Since there already exists a sharing of components for both modes, no additional muscles are needed when transitioning from jumping to gliding"
The desert locust is known for its ability to jump and fly over long distances as well as crawl on land.
A detailed study of the anatomy of this organism provides some detail about the mechanisms for locomotion.
A detailed study of the anatomy of this organism provides some detail about the mechanisms for locomotion.
The hind legs of the locust are developed for jumping.
"In order for a perfect jump to occur, the locust must push its legs on the ground with a strong enough force so as to initiate a fast takeoff."
The force must be adequate enough in order to attain a quick takeoff and decent jump height.
"In order to effectively transition from the jumping mode to the flying mode, the insect must adjust the time during the wing opening to maximize the distance and height of the jump."
"When it is at the zenith of its jump, the flight mode becomes actuated."
"Following the discovery of the requisite model to mimic, researchers sought to design a legged robot that was capable of achieving effective motion in aerial and terrestrial environments by the use of a flexible membrane."
The membrane had to be flexible enough to allow for unrestricted movement of the legs during gliding and walking.
The leg of the robot had to be designed to allow for appropriate torques for walking as well as gliding
"Following the design of the leg and membrane of the robot, its average gliding ratio (GR) was determined to be 1.88."
"The robot functioned effectively, walking in several gait patterns and crawling with its high DoF legs."
These performances demonstrated the gliding and walking capabilities of the robot and its multi-modal locomotion
"The design of the robot called Multi-Mo Bat involved the establishment of four primary phases of operation: energy storage phase, jumping phase, coasting phase, and gliding phase"
The energy storing phase essentially involves the reservation of energy for the jumping energy.
This process additionally creates a torque around the joint of the shoulders which in turn configures the legs for jumping
"Once the stored energy is released, the jump phase can be initiated"
"When the jump phase is initiated and the robot takes off from the ground, it transitions to the coast phase which occurs until the acme is reached and it begins to descend."
"At this stage, the robot glides down."
The robot designed was powered by a single DC motor which integrated the performances of jumping and flapping
The primary feature of the robot's design was a gear system powered by a single motor which allowed the robot to perform its jumping and flapping motions. 
"Just like the motion of the locust, the motion of the robot is initiated by the flexing of the legs to the position of maximum energy storage after which the energy is released immediately to generate the force necessary to attain flight"
The robot was tested for performance and the results demonstrated that the robot was able to jump to an approximate height of 0.9m while weighing 23g and flapping its wings at a frequency of about 19 Hz.
"The robot tested without flapping wings performed less impressively, showing about 30% decrease in jumping performance as compared to the robot with the wings"
These results are quite impressive[editorializing] as it is expected that the reverse be the case since the weight of the wings should have impacted the jumping.
"The unique feature of Asimov's robots is the Three Laws of Robotics, hardwired in a robot's positronic brain, with which all robots in his fiction must comply, and which ensure that the robot does not turn against its creators"
"""Victory Unintentional"" has positronic robots obeying the Three Laws, but also a non-human civilization on Jupiter."
"""Let's Get Together"" features humanoid robots, but from a different future (where the Cold War is still in progress), and with no mention of the Three Laws"
"The Robot series is a series of 37 science fiction short stories and six novels by American writer Isaac Asimov, featuring positronic robots."
"""Mother Earth"" (1948) - short story, in which no individual robots appear, but positronic robots are part of the background"
"Most of Asimov's robot short stories, which he began to write in 1939, are set in the first age of positronic robotics and space exploration."
"The stories were not initially conceived as a set, but rather all feature his positronic robotsindeed, there are some inconsistencies among them, especially between the short stories and the novels."
"It was the Zoromes, then, who were the spiritual ancestors of my own ""positronic robots,"" all of them, from Robbie to R. Daneel."
"The 1989 anthology Foundation's Friends included the positronic robot stories ""Balance"" by Mike Resnick, ""Blot"" by Hal Clement, ""PAPPI"" by Sheila Finch, ""Plato's Cave"" by Poul Anderson, ""The Fourth Law of Robotics"" by Harry Harrison and ""Carhunters of the Concrete Prairie"" by Robert Sheckley."
"Bicentennial Man (1999) was the first theatrical movie adaptation of any Asimov story or novel and was based on both Asimov's original short story of the same name (1976) and its novel expansion, The Positronic Man (1993)"
"The book also contains the short story in which Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics first appear, which had large influence on later science fiction and had impact on thought on ethics of artificial intelligence as well."
"Its plot incorporates elements of ""Little Lost Robot"",[8] some of Asimov's character names and the Three Laws."
"In 2004 The Saturday Evening Post said that I, Robot's Three Laws ""revolutionized the science fiction genre and made robots far more interesting than they ever had been before."""
"In Aliens, a 1986 movie, the synthetic person Bishop paraphrases Asimov's First Law in the line: ""It is impossible for me to harm, or by omission of action allow to be harmed, a human being."""
"An episode of The Simpsons entitled ""I D'oh Bot"" (2004) has Professor Frink build a robot named ""Smashius Clay"" (also named ""Killhammad Aieee"") that follows all three of Asimov's laws of robotics."
"Leela once told Bender to ""cover his ears"" so that he would not hear the robot-destroying paradox which she used to destroy Robot Santa (he punishes the bad, he kills people, killing is bad, therefore he must punish himself), causing a total breakdown; additionally, Bender has stated that he is Three Laws Safe."
"The Indian science fiction film Endhiran, released in 2010, refers to Asimov's three laws for artificial intelligence for the fictional character Chitti: The Robot."
"When a scientist takes in the robot for evaluation, the panel enquires whether the robot was built using the Three Laws of Robotics."
"Upon their publication in this collection, Asimov wrote a framing sequence presenting the stories as Calvin's reminiscences during an interview with her about her life's work, chiefly concerned with aberrant behaviour of robots and the use of ""robopsychology"" to sort out what is happening in their positronic brain."
"Two months after I read it, I began 'Robbie', about a sympathetic robot, and that was the start of my positronic robot series."
"The positronic brain, which Asimov named his robots' central processors, is what powers Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as other Soong type androids. "
"Positronic brains have been referenced in a number of other television shows including Doctor Who, Once Upon a Time... Space, Perry Rhodan, The Number of the Beast, and others."
"In ""Someday"" there are non-positronic computers which tell stories and do not obey the Three Laws."
"In ""Sally"" there are positronic brain cars who can damage men or disobey without problems. No other kinds of robots are seen, and there is no mention of the Three Laws."
"In "". . . That Thou Art Mindful of Him"" robots are created with a very flexible Three Laws management, and these create little, simplified robots with no laws that actually act against the Three Laws of Robotics."
"Andrew uses the money to pay for bodily upgrades, keeping himself in perfect shape, but never has his positronic brain altered."
The first scene of the story is explained as Andrew seeks out a robotic surgeon to perform an ultimately fatal operation: altering his positronic brain so that it will decay with time.
"his story is set within Asimov's Foundation universe, which also includes his earlier Susan Calvin positronic robot tales."
"Sir reveals that U.S. Robots has ended a study on generalized pathways and creative robots, frightened by Andrew's unpredictability."
"However, the robot refuses, as the operation is harmful and violates the First Law of Robotics, which says a robot may never harm a human being."
"The Positronic Man is a 1992 novel by American writers Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, based on Asimov's 1976 novelette ""The Bicentennial Man""."
In the twenty-first century the creation of the positronic brain leads to the development of robot laborers and revolutionizes life on Earth. 
"In The Positronic Man, the trends of fictional robotics in Asimov's Robot series (as outlined in the book I, Robot) are detailed as background events, with an indication that they are influenced by Andrew's story."
"Only when Andrew allows his positronic brain to ""decay"", thereby willfully abandoning his immortality, is he declared a human being."
"This story is set within Asimov's Foundation universe, which also includes his earlier Susan Calvin positronic robot tales."
"No individual robots appear, but positronic robots are part of the background."
"Earth faces a confrontation with its colonies, the ""Outer Worlds."" A historian looks back and sees the problem beginning a century and a half earlier, when Aurora got permission to ""introduce positronic robots into their community life."""
"The only witness is a malfunctioning house robot that has suffered damage to its positronic brain because it allowed harm to be done to a human, in violation of the First Law."
"Ultimately, it is revealed that Delmarre's neighbor, roboticist Jothan Leebig, was working on putting positronic brains in spaceships."
"Leebig poisoned Gruer by tricking his robots, using his knowledge of positronic brains, into putting poison into Gruer's drink."
"This would negate the First Law, as such ships would not recognize that humans usually inhabit ships, and would therefore be able to attack and destroy other ships without regard for their crews."
"R. Daneel and R. Giskard discover the roboticists' plan and attempt to stop Amadiro; but are hampered by the First Law of Robotics,"
"Daneel and Giskard, meanwhile, have inferred an additional Zeroth Law of Robotics: A robot may not injure humanity, or through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."
"It might enable them to overcome Amadiro, if they can use their telepathic perception of humanity to quell the inhibitions of the first law"
"After Amadiro admits their plans, Giskard alters Amadiro's brain (using the newly created Zeroth Law); but in so doing, threatens his own."
"Under the stress of having violated the First Law (in accordance with the Zeroth Law, but with the predicted benefit to humanity being uncertain), R. Giskard himself suffers a soon-fatal malfunction of his positronic brain but manages to confer his telepathic ability upon R. Daneel."
"Dave Langford reviewed Robots and Empire for White Dwarf #85, and stated that ""Asimov always perks up when chopping logic with the Three Laws of Robotics, and here his robots come up with a Fourth, or rather Zeroth, Law."
"In the novel, Asimov depicts the transition from his earlier Milky Way Galaxy, inhabited by both human beings and positronic robots, to his Galactic Empire."
"Gladia is accompanied by the positronic robots R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Reventlov, both the former property of their creator, Dr. Han Fastolfe, who bequeathed them to Gladia in his will. R. Giskard has secret telepathic powers of which only R. Daneel knows."
"The electrical aspect of robots is used for movement (through motors), sensing (where electrical signals are used to measure things like heat, sound, position, and energy status) and operation (robots need some level of electrical energy supplied to their motors and sensors in order to activate and perform basic operations)"
"Actuators are the ""muscles"" of a robot, the parts which convert stored energy into movement."
"Scientists from several European countries and Israel developed a prosthetic hand in 2009, called SmartHand, which functions like a real oneallowing patients to write with it, type on a keyboard, play piano and perform other fine movements"
"As the robot falls to one side, it would jump slightly in that direction, in order to catch itself."
"A quadruped was also demonstrated which could trot, run, pace, and bound"
"A more advanced way for a robot to walk is by using a dynamic balancing algorithm, which is potentially more robust than the Zero Moment Point technique, as it constantly monitors the robot's motion, and places the feet in order to maintain stability"
"In some of Asimov's other works, he states that the first use of the word robotics was in his short story Runaround (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1942),[4][5] where he introduced his concept of The Three Laws of Robotics"
"Its limb control system allowed it to walk with the lower limbs, and to grip and transport objects with hands, using tactile sensors"
"There are three different types of robotic programs: remote control, artificial intelligence and hybrid."
"Robots that use artificial intelligence interact with their environment on their own without a control source, and can determine reactions to objects and problems they encounter using their preexisting programming."
"Several robots have been made which can walk reliably on two legs, however, none have yet been made which are as robust as a human."
"Many other robots have been built that walk on more than two legs, due to these robots being significantly easier to construct."
"Walking robots can be used for uneven terrains, which would provide better mobility and energy efficiency than other locomotion methods."
"Typically, robots on two legs can walk well on flat floors and can occasionally walk up stairs."
"Several robots, built in the 1980s by Marc Raibert at the MIT Leg Laboratory, successfully demonstrated very dynamic walking. "
"Initially, a robot with only one leg, and a very small foot could stay upright simply by hopping."
" As the robot falls to one side, it would jump slightly in that direction, in order to catch itself."
"A more advanced way for a robot to walk is by using a dynamic balancing algorithm, which is potentially more robust than the Zero Moment Point technique, as it constantly monitors the robot's motion, and places the feet in order to maintain stability."
"This technique was recently demonstrated by Anybots' Dexter Robot,[99] which is so stable, it can even jump"
Perhaps the most promising approach utilizes passive dynamics where the momentum of swinging limbs is used for greater efficiency
"It has been shown that totally unpowered humanoid mechanisms can walk down a gentle slope, using only gravity to propel themselves."
"Using this technique, a robot need only supply a small amount of motor power to walk along a flat surface or a little more to walk up a hill"
One approach mimics the movements of a human climber on a wall with protrusions; adjusting the center of mass and moving each limb in turn to gain leverage.
"Science fiction authors also typically assume that robots will eventually be capable of communicating with humans through speech, gestures, and facial expressions, rather than a command-line interface."
"Evolutionary robots is a methodology that uses evolutionary computation to help design robots, especially the body form, or motion and behavior controllers."
"Direct kinematics or forward kinematics refers to the calculation of end effector position, orientation, velocity, and acceleration when the corresponding joint values are known."
"Inverse kinematics refers to the opposite case in which required joint values are calculated for given end effector values, as done in path planning."
"Once all relevant positions, velocities, and accelerations have been calculated using kinematics, methods from the field of dynamics are used to study the effect of forces upon these movements."
"Normal human gait is a complex process, which happens due to co-ordinated movements of the whole of the body, requiring the whole of Central Nervous System - the brain and spinal cord, to function properly."
The most common cause for gait impairment is due to an injury of one or both legs.
"Gait training is not simply re-educating a patient on how to walk, but also includes an initial assessment of their gait cycle - Gait analysis, creation of a plan to address the problem, as well as teaching the patient on how to walk on different surfaces."
"Assistive devices and splints (orthosis) are often used in gait training, especially with those who have had surgery or an injury on their legs, but also with those who have balance or strength impairments as well."
"Although gait training with parallel bars, treadmills and support systems can be beneficial, the long-term aim of gait training is usually to reduce patients' dependence on such technology in order to walk more in their daily lives."
"A gait cycle is defined as the progression of movements that occurs before one leg can return to a certain position during walking, or ambulation."
The gait cycle is studied in two phases - Swing and stance phase.
Any gait training addressing a gait abnormality starts with a proper gait analysis.
"The gait consists of a series of repetitive movements of the whole body during locomotion and is studied considering that each gait cycle repeats over itself, which is almost correct considering normal subjects."
"The basic two phases are swing and stance phases, depending on whether the leg is free to swing or is in contact with the ground during the phase of gait studied."
The stance phase is approximately 60% of the gait cycle and takes about 0.6 seconds to complete at a normal walking speed.
"The swing phase occurs when the foot is not in contact with the ground, and constitutes about 40% of the gait cycle."
The two point gait pattern requires a high level of coordination and balance
"Recently, electromechanical devices such as the Hocoma Lokomat robot-driven gait orthosis have been introduced with the intention of reducing the physical labour demands on therapists."
"Treadmill training, with or without a body-weight support, is an emerging therapy and is being used with stroke patients to improve kinematic gait parameters"
Research has shown that this form of gait training demonstrates a more normal walking pattern without the compensatory movements commonly associated with stroke
Determining the movement of a robot so that its end-effectors move from an initial configuration to a desired configuration is known as motion planning
"The movement of a kinematic chain, whether it is a robot or an animated character, is modeled by the kinematics equations of the chain."
Movement of one element requires the computation of the joint angles for the other elements to maintain the joint constraints.
"For example, inverse kinematics allows an artist to move the hand of a 3D human model to a desired position and orientation and have an algorithm select the proper angles of the wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints."
"Isaac Asimov considered the issue in the 1950s in his I, Robot. At the insistence of his editor John W. Campbell Jr., he proposed the Three Laws of Robotics to govern artificially intelligent systems."
"Much of his work was then spent testing the boundaries of his three laws to see where they would break down, or where they would create paradoxical or unanticipated behavior."
"A panel convened by the United Kingdom in 2010 revised Asimov's laws to clarify that AI is the responsibility either of its manufacturers, or of its owner/operator."
"The movies Bicentennial Man and A.I. deal with the possibility of sentient robots that could love. I, Robot explored some aspects of Asimov's three laws."
The Three Laws of Robotics (often shortened to The Three Laws or known as Asimov's Laws) are a set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov.
"The Three Laws, quoted from the ""Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D."", are: First Law -A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm., Second Law - A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law., Third Law -A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law"
"The Laws are incorporated into almost all of the positronic robots appearing in his fiction, and cannot be bypassed, being intended as a safety feature."
Many of Asimov's robot-focused stories involve robots behaving in unusual and counter-intuitive ways as an unintended consequence of how the robot applies the Three Laws to the situation in which it finds itself.
The original laws have been altered and elaborated on by Asimov and other authors.
"Asimov also added a fourth, or zeroth law, to precede the others: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."
"The Three Laws, and the zeroth, have pervaded science fiction and are referred to in many books, films, and other media."
"Asimov attributes the Three Laws to John W. Campbell, from a conversation that took place on 23 December 1940."
Campbell claimed that Asimov had the Three Laws already in his mind and that they simply needed to be stated explicitly.
"ccording to his autobiographical writings, Asimov included the First Law's ""inaction"" clause because of Arthur Hugh Clough's poem ""The Latest Decalogue"" (text in Wikisource), which includes the satirical lines ""Thou shalt not kill, but needst not strive / officiously to keep alive""."
"Although Asimov pins the creation of the Three Laws on one particular date, their appearance in his literature happened over a period."
"He wrote two robot stories with no explicit mention of the Laws, ""Robbie"" and ""Reason""."
"He assumed, however, that robots would have certain inherent safeguards. ""Liar!"", his third robot story, makes the first mention of the First Law but not the other two."
"When these stories and several others were compiled in the anthology I, Robot, ""Reason"" and ""Robbie"" were updated to acknowledge all the Three Laws, though the material Asimov added to ""Reason"" is not entirely consistent with the Three Laws as he described them elsewhere"
"In his short story ""Evidence"" Asimov lets his recurring character Dr. Susan Calvin expound a moral basis behind the Three Laws."
"Calvin points out that human beings are typically expected to refrain from harming other human beings (except in times of extreme duress like war, or to save a greater number) and this is equivalent to a robot's First Law"
"Likewise, according to Calvin, society expects individuals to obey instructions from recognized authorities such as doctors, teachers and so forth which equals the Second Law of Robotics."
Finally humans are typically expected to avoid harming themselves which is the Third Law for a robot.
"The plot of ""Evidence"" revolves around the question of telling a human being apart from a robot constructed to appear human – Calvin reasons that if such an individual obeys the Three Laws he may be a robot or simply ""a very good man"""
"Asimov later wrote that he should not be praised for creating the Laws, because they are ""obvious from the start, and everyone is aware of them subliminally."
The Laws just never happened to be put into brief sentences until I managed to do the job.
"I have my answer ready whenever someone asks me if I think that my Three Laws of Robotics will actually be used to govern the behavior of robots, once they become versatile and flexible enough to be able to choose among different courses of behavior."
"My answer is, ""Yes, the Three Laws are the only way in which rational human beings can deal with robotsor with anything else."""
Asimov's stories test his Three Laws in a wide variety of circumstances leading to proposals and rejection of modifications.
"Science fiction scholar James Gunn writes in 1982, ""The Asimov robot stories as a whole may respond best to an analysis on this basis: the ambiguity in the Three Laws and the ways in which Asimov played twenty-nine variations upon a theme"""
"Removing the First Law's ""inaction"" clause solves this problem but creates the possibility of an even greater one: a robot could initiate an action that would harm a human (dropping a heavy weight and failing to catch it is the example given in the text), knowing that it was capable of preventing the harm and then decide not to do so."
"Gaia is a planet with collective intelligence in the Foundation series which adopts a law similar to the First Law, and the Zeroth Law, as its philosophy: Gaia may not harm life or allow life to come to harm."
"Three times during his writing career, Asimov portrayed robots that disregard the Three Laws entirely."
"On the other hand, the short story ""Cal"" (from the collection Gold), told by a first-person robot narrator, features a robot who disregards the Three Laws because he has found something far more importanthe wants to be a writer."
"The third is a short story entitled ""Sally"" in which cars fitted with positronic brains are apparently able to harm and kill humans in disregard of the First Law."
"However, aside from the positronic brain concept, this story does not refer to other robot stories and may not be set in the same continuity."
Without the basic theory of the Three Laws the fictional scientists of Asimov's universe would be unable to design a workable brain unit.
"The character Dr. Gerrigel uses the term ""Asenion"" to describe robots programmed with the Three Laws."