Monthly Archive for January, 2002

Something interesting you probably didn’t know

Published
by
Meta
on January 14, 2002
in Ramblings
. 0 Comments

The following is my reply to an email I received from a friend last week. It certainly ruffled a few of my feathers.

Jan 7, 2002

This morning an email was forwarded to me (which I’ve attached for reference) from some ‘patriotic American’ spewing on about how this country was founded by Christians on Christian principles. He even says, ‘and this is clearly documented.’ I would like to know which history book he got that from. The truth is, as the Christian-right tends to ignore or deny, that one of the reasons for wanting Independence in the first place was to escape religious persecution (from Christians, I might add). With that in the forefront of their minds, our Founding Fathers made absolutely sure that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads,

‘Article I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.’

Continue reading ‘Something interesting you probably didn’t know’

The Three Laws of Robotics

Published
by
Meta
on January 2, 2002
in Asides, Current Events and Personal
. 0 Comments

Isaac Asimov, probably my favorite fiction writer of all time, wrote a series of short stories about robots, and how they, in the future, would interact with man-kind. Obviously for robots to work so closely for and with humans, they would need some rules to dictate their behavior.



The Three Laws of Robotics 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 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.



Later, in Robots and Empire, Asimov gives us a Zeroth Law:



0. A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction,…
Continue reading ‘The Three Laws of Robotics’