Dr. Isaac Asimov on throne by Rowena Morill.
South Korea is one of the most technologically advanced country in the world. Having identified robots as a pillar of future economic development, South Korea is now working on a Robot Ethics Charter which will be made available to manufacturers and users alike later this year.
The South Korean ministry of commerce, industry and energy initiated the project. The Charter will serve to protect both robots and humans as their relations grow.
It is especially imperative to do so as the merging of Artificial Intelligence and Robots will bring about in the future, alternate beings with more raw processing power and brute force than the brain and the human flesh, bone, tendon and muscle organism.
Isaac Asimov and the Laws of Robotics
There is a fair chance that the Charter will me developed along the lines already explored by a most famous science-fiction author.
Isaac Asimov was a very prolific science and science-fiction writer and certainly one of the most influential sf writers ever. I first read about Asimov from my father’s book collection which was kept in a piece of furniture in my bedroom – Asimov’s Nightfall. One of the best short stories he has written is “The Last Question“.
Asimov described the three Laws of Robotics which define safe Robot-Human interaction in his story “Runaround” in 1942:
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 orders given 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 Law
Later on, Asimov also added the Zeroth Law of Robotics which supersedes the first three above:
0. A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm
Managing Technological Evolution by Scenarios
Technology progresses exponentially, not linearly. Since most people tend to think linearly when extrapolating future trends, it is necessary to prepare early and prepare well for the Robotics Age.
In the team assembled to work on the charter, South Korea has included a Science-Fiction writer. Sci-Fi, when well done, is an exploration of the future of today’s science with all the sociological, legal, political and psychological ramifications. Here again, by including an SF writer in the Robot Ethics Charter development team, South Korea does its planning well.
In fact, a generally good strategy to prepare for ‘unforeseen’ scientific and technological evolution is to map out all the scenarios already written by science-fiction authors. This mirrors scenario-based strategic business planning by the Shell team.
Honda ASIMO
And it’s good for humanity to be prepared well in advance, now that robots can run too. A fast, intelligent metal predator would be too much to handle for most wetware, wouldn’t it?
