21 replies to this topic

[Si-MOCs]

The Three Laws of Robotics

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 the orders given to 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 Laws.




Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics:

[petamas]

Wow! I love this MOC. I'm a big fan of Asimov and the Three Laws, and you depicted them pretty well. The First and Second Law are just perfect. Personally, I don't like your Third Law as much as the other two - I find it a little bit "plain" in comparison. But the three together are fantastic.

Do you plan to create MOCs about the extensions/modifications of the original Laws? For e.g. Daneel's Zeroth Law, The New Laws (by Roger MacBride Allen) or some other, really obscure laws?

[Si-MOCs]

petamas, on 03 April 2012 - 01:23 AM, said:

Wow! I love this MOC. I'm a big fan of Asimov and the Three Laws, and you depicted them pretty well. The First and Second Law are just perfect. Personally, I don't like your Third Law as much as the other two - I find it a little bit "plain" in comparison. But the three together are fantastic.

Do you plan to create MOCs about the extensions/modifications of the original Laws? For e.g. Daneel's Zeroth Law, The New Laws (by Roger MacBride Allen) or some other, really obscure laws?

Thanks!
I must admit I had a really hard time with the last one... I couldn't really think of a good way to depict the 3rd law in a static build.

I have thought about doing the other laws... but it's even harder than the third!
Though if you have ideas, I'm more than happy to try to build it  

[Darkdragon]

Great scenes. The poor bot in scene one is about to get run over though. Poor guy  

[lightningtiger]

Excellent creation 'Si-MOCs' , these laws must be a sci-fi standard......except in Star Wars right ?

[Legocrazy81]

These are great! You depicted the laws quite well in each scene. Very funny.

[viracocha]

Very nice illustration to the laws!
I wonder how did you decide to build this?    

[Si-MOCs]

darkdragon, on 03 April 2012 - 03:16 AM, said:

Great scenes. The poor bot in scene one is about to get run over though. Poor guy  

But he fulfilled his number one priority!  

lightningtiger, on 03 April 2012 - 04:34 AM, said:

Excellent creation 'Si-MOCs' , these laws must be a sci-fi standard......except in Star Wars right ?

A lot of Sci-Fi robots don't follow these laws, such as Starwars. Off hand the only other robot outside of Asimov's world I can think of (that loosely follow these laws) are: the robot form Lost in Space, Robby the Robot, and Bishop and Ash from Alien(s). I'm sure there's more ... those are just the ones I can think of.

viracocha, on 03 April 2012 - 05:05 AM, said:

Very nice illustration to the laws!
I wonder how did you decide to build this?    

I'm doing a Sci-Fi show later this month, and this was actually built as a companion / glorified MOC card for my Automated Automaton Machine and an excuse to suck up to the Sci-Fi Literati.  

Or did you mean how did I decide what to build in each individual law?  

[Brickadeer]

I clearly like it.

I have to admit, though, that I do not understand how the last scene refers to the third law.

[Scorpiox]

Nice. I saw I,Robot (Which uses the three laws a lot) a few days ago. I love the whole concept of the three laws  and how they are programmed into every robot, and thus can never be broken (Although I,Robot is pretty much about how a robot becomes close to being a person. Good film.).

These MOCs clearly show those laws in action, I especially like the first one with the robot lifting the child off the train line.

[Gahrian]

Very nice moc that put a smile on my face. Good use of colours.
Keep it up.

[petamas]

Si-MOCs, on 03 April 2012 - 03:13 AM, said:

Thanks!
I must admit I had a really hard time with the last one... I couldn't really think of a good way to depict the 3rd law in a static build.

I have thought about doing the other laws... but it's even harder than the third!
Though if you have ideas, I'm more than happy to try to build it  

Well, I have an idea for the Second New Law: a robot and a human could do something together - building a house or something like that.

Only thing I could think about depicting the Zeroth Law is the robot protecting the Earth: maybe using the PotC globe, the SW Naboo planet or a custom-built ball (built with a technique like this). Or you could build one of the Machines, who worked under the basic principles of the Zeroth Law.

I have simply no idea how one should depict the First New Law - it doesn't make robots save humans, only forbids them from harming it. Maybe a robot harming a human and a big red X. (Okay, that was lame.)

The Third Law (both old and new) is a pretty hard nut, I admit - I have no other idea than yours.

The Fourth New Law could be depicted with a robot making art or relaxing on the beach.

Sorry for the long post - I simply had some ideas, and needed to share them.

[Peppermint_M]

Love it! The first scene reminds me of one of the Robot short stories, with a child in a factory. I devoured the classics of SF as a child and they have stood me in good stead. An impressive MOC  

[petamas]

Peppermint_M, on 03 April 2012 - 10:53 AM, said:

Love it! The first scene reminds me of one of the Robot short stories, with a child in a factory. I devoured the classics of SF as a child and they have stood me in good stead. An impressive MOC  

If I recall correctly, that'd be Robbie, one of the first robot stories of Asimov (both in publication and chronological order).

[Combee]

Great build! I really like how you made the train

[LEGOman273]

First off; excellent MOC, Si-MOCS.

lightningtiger, on 03 April 2012 - 04:34 AM, said:

Excellent creation 'Si-MOCs' , these laws must be a sci-fi standard......except in Star Wars right ?

I think that these laws apply to SW, too. These laws are for the programming of Robots; Robots can, however, be programmed differently. Contrast C-3PO and IG-88.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Very original work! I love all the three scenes ...great tribute to a great writer!

[Si-MOCs]

Wow!
Thanks for all the great responses... I didn't realize we had so many classic Sci Fi Fans in the house!
I'll have to build another one for you guys and gals

Brickadeer, on 03 April 2012 - 08:00 AM, said:

I have to admit, though, that I do not understand how the last scene refers to the third law.

The third law was by far the hardest for me to build.
The basic idea is that there's a giant weight that is about to fall - so the robot must protect itself and not stand under it.

Though I'm open to suggestions on rebuilding it (I'm going to retweek the build and add a tunnel law 1 anyways).

petamas, on 03 April 2012 - 10:42 AM, said:

Only thing I could think about depicting the Zeroth Law is the robot protecting the Earth: maybe using the PotC globe, the SW Naboo planet or a custom-built ball (built with a technique like this). Or you could build one of the Machines, who worked under the basic principles of the Zeroth Law.

I have simply no idea how one should depict the First New Law - it doesn't make robots save humans, only forbids them from harming it. Maybe a robot harming a human and a big red X. (Okay, that was lame.)

I actually considered that for the zeroth law!
I tried it out and it didn't work very well - and was very out of proportion to the other Laws...

Similarly I thought about using a big Ghost Busters NO type sign infront of each law... but yeah I concluded it'd be a bit lame too :P

Peppermint_M, on 03 April 2012 - 10:53 AM, said:

Love it! The first scene reminds me of one of the Robot short stories, with a child in a factory. I devoured the classics of SF as a child and they have stood me in good stead.

petamas, on 03 April 2012 - 01:29 PM, said:

If I recall correctly, that'd be Robbie, one of the first robot stories of Asimov (both in publication and chronological order).

Bingo!
First Robot is totally Robbie.
(though it wasn't a train, but I thought train would make the Law easier to tell as he's putting him up on the platform).

@P-M what other SciFi books did you read/like?

LEGOman273, on 03 April 2012 - 04:47 PM, said:

I think that these laws apply to SW, too. These laws are for the programming of Robots; Robots can, however, be programmed differently. Contrast C-3PO and IG-88.

I think a lot of SciFi has taken bits of these laws and used them - generally the 'don't harm Humans' one is pretty standard - but I'm not sure if SW robots really fit the bill. Especially when there are assassin droids which effectively break Law 1. Part of the interestingness of all the 'Robot' stories by Asimov is the iron clad rules - robot's CAN'T break them.

And incidentally for anyone looking to read them - I loved those short stories because each one is about how robots are 'malfunctioning' but really just applying the 3 laws - to the letter.

[Hikaro Takayama]

As a somewhat fan of Isac Assimov, I love these MOCs... As a matter of fact, part of the backstory for this sci-fi series I was working on in High School was an AI war in the mid-21st century, which resulted in laws being made that required all AI's to be hard-wired with the 3 Rules, which were also known as the "Assimovian Protocol".

Your MOCs capture the essence of them quite well.

[Brickadeer]

Si-MOCs, on 03 April 2012 - 11:51 PM, said:

The third law was by far the hardest for me to build.
The basic idea is that there's a giant weight that is about to fall - so the robot must protect itself and not stand under it.

Ok.

I thought this is what it means, but the red on the ground biased my perception: I supposed that the robot was able to find a way around the laws in order to kill the man, that is, I thought the "red" was symbolizing blood.

I still find it pretty hard to believe that the robot is not trying a way around these laws; I guess this stereotype is hard to overcome, and, as I've learnt, it's precisely why Asmiov came up with the idea of the three laws.

So for me, the problem is not so much how you built it. The problem is that stereotypes of robots became so imbued to my perception that I wasn't able to get a fully satisfying interpretation of your build despite the express meaning given by the three laws. I still can't watch your build without thinking, "Ok, how will he do it (= work around the laws in order to harm/kill someone)?". Basically, I don't see a friendly helper, but a ticking time bomb, a disguised killer.

Edited by Brickadeer, 04 April 2012 - 02:18 PM.

[LEGOman273]

Si-MOCs, on 03 April 2012 - 11:51 PM, said:

I think a lot of SciFi has taken bits of these laws and used them - generally the 'don't harm Humans' one is pretty standard - but I'm not sure if SW robots really fit the bill. Especially when there are assassin droids which effectively break Law 1. Part of the interestingness of all the 'Robot' stories by Asimov is the iron clad rules - robot's CAN'T break them.

And incidentally for anyone looking to read them - I loved those short stories because each one is about how robots are 'malfunctioning' but really just applying the 3 laws - to the letter.

Assassin droids break the First Law, but follow the other two. A modified version of Law 2 overrides Law 1.

Edited by LEGOman273, 04 April 2012 - 03:59 PM.

[Tobbe Arnesson]

Cool idea and very well executed!