ROBOTICS IN
ISAAC ASIVMOV
The
Three Laws of Robotics appearing on page75 (Inside Information) are a set of rules
devised by the science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The rules were introduced in
his 1942 short story "Runaround", although they had been
foreshadowed in a few earlier stories. The Three Laws are:
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 Law.
The Laws are incorporated into
almost all the robots appearing in his fiction, and cannot be bypassed,
being intended as a safety feature. Many of Asimov's robot-focused stories
involve robots behaving in unusual and counter-intuitive ways as an unintended
consequence of how the robot applies the Three Laws to the situation in which
it finds itself. LISTENING COMPRENHENSION. I, ROBOT (2004)
1. Fill in the gaps according to the dialogue what Detective Spooner says.
a. “_______ is a new
_______ for a robot”
b. “Human beings have dreams, even dogs
have dreams, but not you, you’re just
a ________, an _________ _____
_________.
c. "Can a robot
_____ ____
________, can a robot ______ a
________ into a ___________ _____________?".
2.
Answer the following questions about
Sonny, and detective Spooner.
a. According to Spooner, winking at somebody means
……………………………………………………
b. What does Sonny think about human
emotions? ………………………………………………………….
c. Who taught him human emotions? ………………………………………………………………………………
d. Why was Sonny at the crime scene?
……………………………………………………………………………
e. Why does Spooner disagree with his
answer? ………………………………………………………………
f.
Spooner
says Sonny killed doctor Lanning because
........................................................................……………………………………………………………………………………………………
g. Spooner compares a robot with what two
types of household machines?
…………………… ……………………………
Why do you think he does it? ……………………………………………………………………………………
h. Does Sonny lose his temper? Why?
What does he do?
i.
Spooner
describes his reaction as ___________
j.
Finally,
Sonny seems to blame himself for Lanning’s death. How does he pretend to
justify it? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………
