Joseph Riggs wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Ramos" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Sentient artificial life forms [was-Re: [gundam] (OT)Matrix
Revelations]
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 13:04:20 +0800
True, R. Giskard does shut down - but he is able to circumvent the
Laws enough to perform the action. that's significant in itself.
He doesn't exactly circumvent the Laws. The Zeroeth Law is an If A and B, then
C type of logic construct. If the First Law stipulates that a robot must not
allow a human to come to harm, and a particular action will keep humanity as a
whole from coming to harm, then that action must take priority over the needs
of an individual human. A simple example would be a terrorist who tells a
robot that he will commit suicide if the robot doesn't bring him a component he
needs for the bomb he's building.
And it is, in fact, the deduced Zero Law that causes Giskard to shut down. His
actions are based on the idea that it is important to force humans to leave
Earth and spread out. But at the same time, his actions are risky and he can't
be sure that it was actually the correct decision. Ergo, he may have actually
just hurt humanity as a whole in the long run, and the uncertainty over the
correctness of his decision is what causes him to shut down.
Law Zero both motivates his action, and causes him to cease functioning as a
result of his action.
junior
Hmm. good point there. I accept the logic. I had always thought that it
was the fact that the Zeroeth law is not "hardwired" and therefore was
not strong enough to prevent him from shutting down.
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