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If you read Science Fiction, then the Three Laws of Robotics might feel as familiar as knowing your ABC. Even general readers will probably find they have unknowingly assimilated these laws up to a point, from films and so on. They are part of our culture. But who thought these “Laws of Robotics�� up, and when were they first put in print?

The answer to this is that the American writer Isaac Asimov invented the Three Laws of Robotics, and first used them in his short story Runaround. The story was written in 1941, and first published a few months later in the “Astounding Science Fiction�� magazine for March 1942. It was then republished in Isaac Asimov’s first collection of Robot stories “I, Robot�� in 1950. Here are the Three Laws of Robotics:

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 Laws

Runaround is set in the far future (from the readers of 1942’s point of view) of 2015. We meet two characters who are to feature in several of Isaac Asimov’s stories: Mike Donovan and Gregory Powell. They have been sent to the planet Mercury, along with Robot SPD-13, known as “Speedy��, to assess operations at a mining station which had been abandoned ten years earlier. The hope is that it can be manned by a robot. However, they quickly run low on selenium. The nearest selenium pool is seventeen miles away, and humans cannot cope with Mercury’s high temperatures. Therefore Mike Donovan sends Speedy to go and get some.

However, five hours pass, and Speedy has still not returned. (view spoiler)[When they eventually locate Speedy, they discover he is running in circles around a selenium pool, moving with “a peculiar rolling stagger, a noticeable side-to-side lurch��. Moreover, the robot begins to babble nonsense, quoting Gilbert and Sullivan, and generally behaving as if he were drunk.

Gregory Powell realises that the selenium source must constitute a danger to the robot. Usually, any robot would observe the Second Law of Robotics, and obey the orders given to it by human beings. But because Speedy had been so expensive to manufacture, it was consider important not to destroy him. Therefore the Third Law had been strengthened so that Speedy’s response to danger is unusually high. However, Mike Donovan had not borne this in mind, and not been particularly careful in how he worded the order to retrieve the selenium. So Speedy is confused. He cannot decide whether to obey the command, following the Second Law, or protect himself from danger, following the strengthened Third Law.

This leads to Speedy oscillating between positions. He first moves away from the selenium, in order to protect himself. But as soon as he gets a little further away from the selenium, the Second Law of Robotics kicks in, and the order to obey given to it by human beings takes priority. Back he goes, nearer the selenium, in which the compulsion of the Third Law of self-preservation then outweighs the Second Law. These conflicting Laws are causing the robot to be stuck in a never-ending loop, and it is this which makes Speedy appear inebriated. The robot’s conflicted positronic brain cannot accept new orders.

Gregory Powell remembers an old saying “Set a robot to catch a robot��, and knows that there are six robots from the First Expedition down in the sublevels. They are primitive, but perhaps they would still work, and could be order to fetch Speedy. Everything now looks more hopeful. But unfortunately these robots were designed to be slaves, and could only move with a human on their shoulders.

Wearing special “i�Բ��Dz��ܾ��ٲ��� which are far lighter than spacesuits, the two men ride two of the old robots to the selenium pool, as if they are mounted on horseback. After various attempt to counteract Speedy’s erratic behaviour, they throw oxalic acid in his path. It could destroy him but it merely causes Speedy to change his route until he finds a new equilibrium between avoiding danger and obeying orders. The only thing left is to invoke the First Law of Robotics, and for this one of them must put themselves in danger.

Gregory Powell gets off his mount, and goes on foot, the heat baking down on him. He calls desperately to Speedy for help, but to his surprise it is the primitive robot who comes to his aid, breaking his programming to not move without a human on his shoulders, in order to obey the first law, and save a human in danger. Speedy then comes to his aid at the last minute.

The two men manage to get back to the space station, dragging Speedy with them, and while Gregory Powell is recovering from his ordeal, Mike Donovan sends Speedy back to get the badly needed selenium, this time using a far more urgent command. They are able to repair the photocell banks after all. (hide spoiler)]

In general I enjoyed this story, although I felt the ending was a little weak. The main thing that stands out is how clear it is right from the start, that Isaac Asimov anthropomorphised his robots. By adapting the model number SPD 13 into the name “Speedy��, and by referring to the robot as “he�� instead of “it��, Isaac Asimov demonstrated how easy—perhaps even how necessary it is psychologically—to endow robots with human qualities. Near the end, one of the characters says:

“[Speedy] still hasn’t finished apologising for the runaround he gave us. He’s scared to come near you for fear of what you’ll say.��

The conventional words for apologising can presumably be programmed into the positronic brain, but fear is surely these humans empathically attributing an impossible experience to a robot.

Another aspect I enjoyed was the introduction of more primitive robots. This reminded me so much of gadgets with all the latest bells and whistles, most of which we may not need or want, and which are likely to go wrong more often. Sometimes the simplest machines are the most reliable. In some cases, as we see here, technological advancement can be more troublesome than it is beneficial.

The descriptions of what Mercury might be like, are very effective. Everything is brighter and darker without atmosphere—or with only a tiny, poisonous atmosphere. There is quite a lot of science and predictions of future technology in Runaround.

I personally didn’t care for the humour in this story, with the joshing and sparring of the archetypal testosterone-fueled males. Since they feature in other stories, I feel Mike Donovan and Gregory Powell may soon grow tiresome and outstay their welcome. However, this first story does show that making robots similar to humans but essentially different, offers many opportunities for quirky humour. It also shows that there are many possibilities for conflict using the Three Laws of Robotics.

If this had not been such a landmark story I might have rated Runaround at 3 stars. But the purpose of Runaround was to introduce the bold new idea of the three Laws of Robotics, and it does this in an entertaining and thought-provoking way, so it deserves 4 stars. I am looking forward to reading more about the quandaries, conundrums and unforeseen consequences resulting from these laws.