[extropy-chat] Re: Asimov

[Damien Broderick]

>While it wasn't at the
>forefront in his novels, his robots did, in fact, send ships all over
>the galaxy committing genocide via terraforming against any number of
>intelligent alien races, which is why in the Foundation series only
>humans inhabit the galaxy.

It's years since I dragged myself through the ruinous bloat of Asimov's 
sequels, but I have the impression that this final solution was due not to 
Asimov but to Benford, Bear and Brin after his death. (It's a perfectly 
consistent deeply fucked-up solution, however.)

Either way, I, ROBOT was a collection of Asimov's earliest robot tales, 
with only the Three Laws in play. That allowed all kinds of remarkable 
casuistry--such as the world-governing Machines, and perhaps a robot 
passing itself off as human in order to become President--but there was 
*zero* opportunity for hordes of amok robots.

Of course, the movie's not out yet, and the scriptwriter might have found 
some wiggly way around this that recuperates the Laws.

Damien Broderick