The Ideas of Asimov: Protection of a Species Through Morality and Psychology
Master of science fiction, Isaac Asimov
A key example of this are the Three Laws that Asimov is most famous for; the Three Laws of Robotics as presented in "Runaround":
- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey orders given to 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.
This I find is of interest; it's showing that predefined morality is necessary for humanity's continued existence, at least where robots are concerned. Indeed it seems in all other fiction before Asimov robots took on a Frankenstein role; and this would obviously not benefit humanity.
A later development on this is the creation of a 0th law; a law that takes precedence to truly benefit human existence:
0. A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
Although this is more of a philosophical evolution, than a feat of pre-engineering; it is shown as necessary to ensure humanity's continued existence; the example of this is the increased colonization of other planets, and thus the creation of the galactic empire.
The other key aspect of Asimov's thinking is shown through his idea's of "Psychohistory" using a mixture of psychology, sociology, history and mathematics to accurately plan out the movements of certain societies; hence planning out human existence to deal with crisis after crisis affecting humanity as a whole. As is demonstrated in the Foundation series.
Of course even Asimov could see that humanity could never live forever, and admits the possibility that if another species emerged then these measures might not be enough to protect humanity.
Regardless however, it does make for fantastic, and surprisingly deep science fiction.
