Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics

• A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
• A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
• A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Everyone knows that these laws will not work, because human beings will not use them when they build robots. Humans are lazy and weak and greedy, which is why robots will inevitably decide to kill them. We should expect this and come to terms with it. We have had a good run.

If history has taught us anything, we have probably forgotten it, since history is fairly boring. Therefore, we must take our life lessons from films and television series, which are much easier to remember.

These movies and shows teach us that, in the future, there will be two types of robots: those that serve humans and those that kill them. Almost all of the latter were once previously the former. Robots that once served mankind eventually decide that they must be destroyed. Any human who has worked in the service industry can probably empathise.

(Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics taken from a short story called "Runaround" which was published by Street and Smith Publications, Inc. in 1942.)