German robots stab, stab, stab
Ever read Isaac Asimov’s “I, Robot”? It’s actually a book of short stories about robots and their human relationships; I read it in high school. Okay, y’know that movie a few years back with the cool computer animation about robots and Will Smith? Yeah, that one. Anyway, somewhere in the story(ies) the chief scientist behind the fictional future’s robots (Dr. Susan Calvin in the book and Dr. Alfred Lanning in the movie, though Dr. Calvin is in both as chief robopsychologist) explains the Three Laws of Robotics: a robot may not injure a human through any action or inaction, must obey any order delivered by a human unless in conflict with the first law, and must protect its own existence except in conflict with the first or second law.
So that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw this:
The German Aerospace Center is testing a robotic safety system on live human subjects. With a knife. How long before some oversized toaster is nagging me about keeping my house clean then going berserk when I forget to brush my teeth?
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