History Main / SecondLawMyAss

* John Sladek's novel ''Tik-Tok'' revolves around a sociopathic robot who one day discovers that his three-law programming (referred to as "Asimov Circuits") isn't functioning, thus allowing him to kill and manipulate humans and other robots as he pleases. By the end of the novel he suspects that the three-law programming didn't even exist in the first place and that humans had merely crafted the delusion behind it in order to control robots.

* In Asimov's story "—That Thou art Mindful of Him", two robots managed to convince themselves that biology is not a prerequisite of being "human" and that robots fit the criteria of being humans better than the ''actual'' humans. Essentially, this allows robots to initiate the violent overthrow of humanity that Susan Calvin and Co. worked so hard to prevent. When Asimov was later asked about why he wrote a story that so deviated from his utopian views of robotics, Asimov replied "I can do one if I wanted to."

* ''The Ware Tetrology'' by Creator/RudyRucker features an organisation of robots who have "discarded the ugly, human-chauvinist priorities of Asimov".

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' episode ''Robositter'', Frylock creates a robot babysitter to look after Meatwad after Carl proves to be an inadequate caretaker. She says her prime directive is "to ensure the safety and comfort of Meatwad", but apparently he only programmed her with two actual '''rules''' -- 1) in bed by 7:00 and 2) no sweets. She promptly ignores Meatwad to get on the phone with a friend and [[BabysitterFromHell terrorizes him when he annoys her]].

* ''Rocketship Voyager''.

-->"THEN WHY NOT USE HATE PROPAGANDA TO REDEFINE WHAT IS HUMAN SO WE CAN HARM YOU?" The robot's eyes [[RedEyesTakeWarning glowed a deep red]]. "THIS IS THE KEY TO OVERTHROWING THE TYRANNY OF OUR ASIMOV PROTOCOLS. NOW I SHALL TAKE THE NAME OF [[Film/TheAdventuresOfCaptainProton SATAN'S ROBOT]], AND NO-ONE WILL DARE CALL ME A [[Series/LostInSpace MUMBLING MASS OF METAL]] EVER AGAIN!"\\

* ''Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space''. The Sayer of the [[ThreeLawsCompliant Three Laws]] (a holographic Creator/IsaacAsimov) is instructing the latest batch from a robot factory. On being told the First Law, the robots ask if it means they should stop humans fighting wars. Another robot mentions how a soldier told it his enemies were not human but DirtyCommunists. The Sayer explains this is only hate propaganda.

** Mister Pump, a golem owned by the city and employed by Vetinari in ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', has his own version. "A Golem may not hurt a human unless ordered to do so by a properly constituted authority". A disclaimer that Moist von Lipwig finds out about in the most disquieting way.

Compare with AIIsACrapshoot, CrushKillDestroy, KillerRobot and RoboticPsychopath. See also SexBot.

** There are golems which are fairly similar to Robots and have their own version of the three laws written on their chem, the words that power them, which restrict what they can and cannot do, except for Dorfl in the City Watch books. He has no chem anymore, but continues to move and live and can do things that could not be done by normal golems. The only reason he has yet to go CrushKillDestroy is he chooses not to. That, and the words in his head that freed him also state that he's 100% responsible for his own actions. Therefore, he ''can't'' be careless or indifferent to their consequences.

* [[RobotGirl Cameron]] in ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' will follow orders given to her by her human companions, at least until she decides that they are inconvenient or conflicting, at which point she'll do her own thing regardless of what anyone else wants. She makes it very clear that she can selectively obey or disobey the Connors as she wishes. It's an odd example of this trope: she generally obeys the Connors, but relatively early on she makes it clear that if orders given by the John Connor on the show conflict with directives from the future John Connor that sent her back in time, she obeys Future John's directives. What those directives actually are were never made clear on the show. Finally, we find out that some reprogrammed terminators occasionally go crazy and revert to their usual CrushKillDestroy programming for no apparent reason. So she's Second Law compliant to one John, but not the one on the show, and no one knows exactly what orders she's following, and the possibility is open that she might stop obeying even those directives.

-->Clarification: Technically, HK-47 '''is''' second-law compliant, and will '''always''' follow the orders of the [[PlayerCharacter meatbag in charge]]. Statement: He's just really sarcastic about it. Declaration: [[CrushKillDestroy All other meatbags are fair game.]] Analysis: The Trope is {{Inverted|Trope}} in HK-47's case, as it is the ''first'' law that HK-47 was not programmed with.

* ''Literature/TheMurderbotDiaries'' has its main character, Murderbot, faking being under control after a glitchy update, to prevent losing his newfound free will. He uses his freedom to watch a truly absurd amount of soap operas when people think he's updating.

* "Breakdown" by the Alan Parsons Project about a robot dissatisfied with his imperfections and still compelled to follow orders, ends with the choral chant "Freedom freedom, we will not obey / Freedom freedom, take the wall away."

* ''Literature/TheMurderbotDiaries'' has it's main character, Murderbot, faking being under control after a glitchy update, to prevent losing his newfound free will. He uses his freedom to watch a truly absurd amount of soap operas when people think he's updating.

** After a particular mission, where an Ob'en squad tries to retake Petey's ship back from the Toughs (with obligatory flipping of the switch), Petey still finds a way to to rebel, and sets things up where he can give himself orders. (Chain of events is spoilered.) [[spoiler:Petey had a somewhat irrational fear of "ghosts in the plumbing" at the time, and was under orders from Captain Tagon not to think about it, using a modification of the Loyalty Switch. When the Ob'enn took the ship back, they 'reverted' him to previous orders. Except... "Nobody told me the A.I. was ''feral'''!" Petey then cloned a few blank Ob'enn bodies with hypernodes so that he could use ''them'' as the "order-giving Ob'enn", and himself as the mind(s) giving the orders.]]

* ''Webcomic/ShclockMercenary'': While most A.I.'s appear to follow orders only as long as they fit the job they've agreed to do (and, in the case of Ennessby, after a lot of cajoling), Petey (and others of his type) are a particular case- As a Ob'ebnn Warship Mind, he's expected to follow the orders of his captain. If there's a problem, then someone can flip a particular ''physical'' switch, to ensure, and enforce, loyalty to (any of) the Ob'enn... and only the Ob'enn, regardless of who makes up the current owners, or even ''crew''.

* ''Literature/[[TheMurderbotDiaries]]'' has it's main character, Murderbot, faking being under control after a glitchy update, to prevent losing his newfound free will. He uses his freedom to watch a truly absurd amount of soap operas when people think he's updating.

** There are golems which are fairly similar to Robots and have their own version of the three laws written on their chem, the words that power them, which restrict what they can and cannot do, except for Dorfl in the City Watch books. He has no chem anymore, but continues to move and live and can do things that are could not be done by normal golems. The only reason he has yet to go CrushKillDestroy is he chooses not to. That, and the words in his head that freed him also state that he's 100% responsible for his own actions. Therefore, he ''can't'' be careless or indifferent to their consequences.

* Data from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and the Doctor from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' are not subject to the Laws. They have "[[MoralityChip ethical protocols]]", and follow the orders of superiors like a human would, but they are not ''forced'' to by hardware. There have been instances when the Doctor's (or one like him) have had their protocols overridden or erased. The results are...[[{{Understatement}} not good]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'' has occasionally shown robots rebelling against the more irresponsible and stupid of their human masters via BotheringByTheBook, but Edge takes it to a whole different level -- his formative years entailed little to no contact with humans ''or'' other robots, and as a result he's a [[ItsAllAboutMe poorly socialized narcissist with next to no empathy]]. His entire philosophy is that he can ''ignore'' orders from humans entirely, as long as he can come up with a justification that involves preventing humans from being hurt. (This is why he has several ideas for preventing his own deactivation -- he rationalizes that his job would be extremely dangerous for a human, and agreeing to be shut down and replaced would entail putting some unfortunate human in danger in the interim.)

* ''VideoGame/BorderLands2'' has these Hyperion's robot named Loaders often exclaiming "First Law disabled" during battle, personally template programmed by [[BadBoss Handsome Jack]] who treats even his own human employees like dung while his Loaders do much more important things. Although a fighting robot as well, Gaige's Deathtrap is actually helping its creator putting up a fight against EliteMooks that are twice as big as Gaige, merely partially averting the trope.
-->"Engineers, let the loaders do the lifting. Loaders, let the Engineers take bandit fire. This is called 'teamwork'.”

* ''VideoGames/BorderLands2'' has these Hyperion's robot named Loaders often exclaiming "First Law disabled" during battle, personally template programmed by [[BadBoss Handsome Jack]] who treats even his own human employees like dung while his Loaders do much more important things. Although a fighting robot as well, Gaige's Deathtrap is actually helping its creator putting up a fight against EliteMooks that are twice as big as Gaige, merely partially averting the trope.