The three laws of robotics revisited

Abstract

The three laws of robotics formulated by Isaac Asimov have attained widespread acceptance in Science Fiction literature. A recent film relates to one of the stories in Asimov's book. It deals with what seems to be a fundamental problem of discretionary interpretation of the laws by robots. The main object of this paper is to analyse the modelling of judicial discretion by a computer program (in the future perhaps a robot). Only the interpretational aspect of the film is of relevance to this paper. It does not relate to the actions of humans or robots in the film or the present and future feasibility of those actions.