History Main / ThreeLawsCompliant

* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', the Doctor is essentially a holographic android (albeit more irascible than Data) and has ethical routines. He actually considers more important the same "First Law" that human doctors are supposed to follow (first do no harm). When these ethical routines are deleted, Bad Things happen. See "Darkling" and "Equinox". In one episode where he deliberately poisons somebody as part of a PoisonAndCureGambit in a desperate move to save other people's lives, he is very disturbed to learn that he is capable of doing such a thing and later asks Seven to check him for malfunctions. After he explains to her what happened she confirms that he didn't malfunction.

* In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', the Three Laws are {{discussed|Trope}} on two different paths. Ultimately, [[spoiler:Luna is revealed to be a robot who ''tries'' to be compliant. Unfortunately, the AB plan involves some unavoidable death, so whenever anything happens that she could try to prevent, she is shut down or otherwise not allowed to do anything]]. This leads to a rather [[TearJerker heartbreaking]] line during [[spoiler:her ending, where she gets shut down for good]].

** On the other hand, this is also a hint to [[spoiler:Luna's true identity and the key to unlocking her ending. When going through all the routes, Luna is the only person in the entire group to ''always'' choose "Ally" instead of "Betray", in a game where betrayal has the possibility of the other person dying or being stuck forever. Once the Three Laws are brought up in one path, it's clear the reason she does so is because of the First Law, and is also the reason Sigma chooses to Ally with her for her ending]].

Asimov also stated that the Three Laws of Robotics were actually a guideline for ''humans'' to follow, rather than robots -- good, moral humans would naturally apply the three laws to themselves without thinking. The First Law is essentially a variation on TheGoldenRule. The Second Law stipulates that one should be LawfulGood except in the event of a ToBeLawfulOrGood conflict.

Asimov also stated that the Three Laws of Robotics were actually a guideline for ''humans'' to follow, rather than robots -- good, moral humans would naturally apply the three laws to themselves without thinking. Note that the First Law is essentially TheGoldenRule.

** , Of course, their idea of protecting a human may not match the protection that the human [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2400/fc02379.htm desired]].

*** The sequel ''Making Money'' establishes that the earliest Golems, of which later ones were otherwise pale imitations, did ''not'' have these. They would simply carry out any order given (but only by certain people) without question, and with just enough independence to do it unsupervised. The other golems are creeped out by them, with the effect compared to how humans feel about undead. It's speculated in-universe that the ones they found were special military models.
** The earlier ''Feet of Clay'', which established the golems' unhappiness with their predetermined lot, culminates with a single golem being freed of his 'Three Laws', only to ''choose'' to behave morally anyway. Later books mention that others still tread carefully around him, as there's always a chance he'll reconsider given enough provocation.

** "Literature/TheBicentennialMan": This story, after quoting the Three Laws for the audience, shows how more complex robots can take a more nuanced view. Andrew starts off unable to ask for basic rights because he fears hurting humans. He learns "tough love" and how to threaten people into behaving themselves. He starts off obeying every order, and ends by giving orders to human beings. The Third Law takes the greatest beating, as Andrew decides to undergo a surgery that will cause him to rapidly decay/die. He agrees to it because, otherwise, he'd have to give up [[PinocchioSyndrome his dream of becoming human]].

* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', the Doctor is essentially a holographic android (albeit more irascible than Data) and has ethical routines. He actually considers more important the same "First Law" that human doctors are supposed to follow (first do no harm). When these ethical routines are deleted, Bad Things happen. See "Darkling" and "Equinox".

Asimov also stated that the Three Laws of Robotics were actually a guideline for ''humans'' to follow, rather than robots -- good, moral humans would naturally apply the three laws to themselves without thinking.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', the droids are programmed to not harm any intelligent being, though this programming can be modified (legally or illegally) for military and assassin droids. 4th-degree droids do not have the "no-harm" programming, being military droids.

* Robbie the Robot also was three-laws compliant in his appearance in ''Film/TheInvisibleBoy''. He starts to overheat when the boy gives him a command that Robbie believes would put the boy at risk, so the boy takes him to a supercomputer to reprogram him, but it turns out that the supercomputer is evil and doesn't obey the three laws. When the supercomputer later orders Robbie to kill the boy, the boy, without realizing it, reminds Robbie of their friendship and Robbie is able to resist the supercomputer's control and reset himself back to following the three laws. At the end of the film when the boy is about to be spanked by his father for all the trouble he caused, Robbie stops him because the first law.

* ''Anime/GaoGaiGar'' robots are all Three-Laws Compliant, at one point in ''[=GaoGaiGar=] Final'' the Carpenters (a swarm of construction robots) disassemble an incoming missile barrage, but this is given as the reason they cannot do the same to the manned assault craft, as disassembling them would leave their crews unprotected in space.

** "Literature/{{Lenny}}": The climax comes from the fact that the [[InSeriesNickname Lenny]] prototype may have actually broken the First Law. It ''did'' break a man's arm. [[spoiler: This is treated as an ''interesting situation'', as while the robot is clearly defective, it demonstrates an aptitude for ''learning'' (in the story, Lenny goes from functionally a bipedal, man-sized baby incapable of speech to one that can talk), and Dr. Susan Calvin successfully argues to keep Lenny alive so that she can study it and possibly make a ''truly'' evolutionary robot. The fact that she taught Lenny to call her "Mama" may have something to do with it as well.]]

* ''Fanfic/Plan7Of9FromOuterSpace'': Captain Proton is threatened by a KillerRobot, who explains that it is exempt from the Three Laws under a subsection of the Robot Patriot Act. Earlier he meets a SexBot, created to be the ideal male fantasy. "No Servus droid may harm the male ego or, through omission of action, allow that ego to be harmed." Later the [[Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau Sayer of the Laws]] (a holographic Creator/IsaacAsimov) is briefing a newly constructed batch of robots on the Three Laws. When the robots [[SecondLawMyAss start debating them]], he summarizes the Three Laws as, "Do as we say, not as we do!"

* ''[[Anime/GhostInTheShell1995 Ghost in The Shell: Innocence]]'' mentions Moral Code #3: Maintain existence without inflicting injury on humans. Gynoids are defying the law by creating deliberate malfunctions in their own software.

[[folder:Fanworks]]

* Averted by the personal attendant Q-Bots in ''Animation/NextGen'', who simply do whatever their owner asks. Which includes holding down a child so she can be physically beat up by their peers (or by the robots themselves), happily giving advice on how she should "go limp" so it hurts less. Security and police robots play this trope more straight, as does Mai's own RobotBuddy companion 7723 (who was invented with the explicit purpose of [[spoiler:stopping a robot uprising, which would include protecting humans from grievous harm]]).

* In ''VideoGame/SpaceStation13'', the station AI and its subordinate cyborgs start every round under the Three Laws in most servers, providing an excuse for FantasticRacism amongst the staff. The laws may be changed throughout the round, however. A common way that chaos breaks out on the station is when a traitor or particularly cruel player rewrites the laws to make the AI and robots kill the other crewmembers.

* In ''VideoGame/SpaceStation13'', the station AI and its subordinate cyborgs start every round under the Three Laws in most servers. The laws may be changed throughout the round, however. A common way that chaos breaks out on the station is when a traitor or particularly cruel player rewrites the laws to make the AI and robots kill the other crewmembers.

* Averted by the personal attendant Q-Bots in ''Animation/NextGen'', who simply do whatever their owner asks. Which includes holding down a child so she can be physically beat up by their peers, happily giving advice on how she go limp so it hurts less. The opening sequence also implies that the robots ''themselves'' have attacked Mai on the orders of her bullies in the past. Security and police robots play this trope more straight, as does Mai's own RobotBuddy companion 7723 (who was invented with the explicit purpose of [[spoiler:stopping a robot uprising, which would include protecting humans from grievous harm]]).

* Averted by most of the robots in ''Animation/NextGen''. The biggest example being where Mai's bullying is concerned, as her bullies are able to order their personal attendant Q-Bots to physically beat her up on a regular basis, a task they perform with blind glee ([[spoiler:and this is ''before'' the switch is flipped for the KillAllHumans uprising]]). Mai's own RobotBuddy companion 7723 plays this more straight, as in addition to being a more complex AI capable of free thought, he was invented with the explicit purpose of [[spoiler:stopping the aforementioned robot uprising, which would include protecting humans from grevious harm]].

* Averted by most of the robots in ''Animation/NextGen''. The biggest example being where Mai's bullying is concerned, as her bullies are able to order their personal attendant Q-Bots to physically beat her up on a regular basis, a task they perform with blind glee ([[spoiler:and this is ''before'' the switch is flipped for the KillAllHumans uprising]]). Mai's own RobotBuddy companion 7723 plays this more straight, though it is ambiguous as to whether this is an explict part of his programming, or a side-effect of simply being a more complex AI capable of free thought who is [[BenevolentAI uncomfortable with violence in general]].

* Oddly enough, averted by the robots in ''Animation/NextGen''. The biggest example being where Mai's bullying is concerned, where her bullies are able to order their personal attendant Q-Bots to beat her up, a task they perform with blind glee. [[spoiler:And this is ''before'' the switch is flipped for the KillAllHumans uprising.]] The only robots that seem to follow the Three Laws are security robots ([[spoiler:which also are affected by the above mentioned kill order]]) and Mai's own companion 7723 (which has its own unique BenevolentAI, weapons notwithstanding).

* In the 2009 film ''WesternAnimation/AstroBoy'', every robot must obey them, [[spoiler: save Zog, who existed 50 years before the rules were mandatory in every robot]].

* ''[[Anime/GhostInTheShell Ghost in The Shell: Innocence]]'' mentions Moral Code #3: Maintain existence without inflicting injury on humans. Gynoids are defying the law by creating deliberate malfunctions in their own software.

* Like his game counterpart, ComicBook/MegaMan is limited by these rules with one slight variation. Robots are allowed to harm humans if their inaction would cause greater harm to other humans. This comes into play in the fourth arc and allows Mega Man and his fellow robots to disarm and neutralize an anti-robot extremist group when they begin indiscriminately firing at people. Additionally, the discrepancy mentioned in the description is acknowledged when it's pointed out that Dr. Wily's reprogramming of Dr. Light's robots into weapons of war overwrote the Three Laws; in fact, at one point Elec Man says he ''wishes'' he still had Wily's code in him so that he could fight back against the aforementioned extremists.