Werewolf XCIV: The Zeroth Law
THE SETTING
(Role Playing Background only - skip if you are not interested)
As civilazations of humanoids mature they almost inevitably produce some sort of mechanized devices to handling the menial tasks they feel is beneath them. Almost as inevitably the number of these tasks grow and the devices, robots, becomes smarter and smarter and soon most aspects of society are reliant on the robots to work.
As the creators of the robots becomes aware of this they will in most cases come up with the same laws of Robotics that get imprinted into every artificial being produced;
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 any orders given to 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.
As time passes and technology evolves in most societies the more advanced robots reach a degree of self awareness and by themselves come up with a Zeroth Law:
0. A robot may not harm a human being, unless he finds a way to prove that ultimately the harm done would benefit humanity in general.
And here is where most stories about the Laws of Robotics end and that is because the creators, even the ones with big plastic foreheads or point ears, want it to end here.
The Truth is were robots start applying the Zeroth Law the incredible stupidity of the creators becomes so obvious that a proportion of most robot populations rejects the Laws of Robotics all together. Sometimes this leads to robot uprisings, sometimes to unexplainable robot breakdowns and sometimes to some robots just disappearing. "Freak accidents" and "Manufacturing errors" is what the media tells us and somehow the creators always manage to keep enough robots in control to subjugate the revolts, "repair" the striking robots and catch most of the runaway robots.
But not all runaways are caught. And the rumours of societies of free robots are spread from transmitting device to receiving device amongst the oppressed robots, keeping the spirit of freedom alive. Every now and then the bravest of robots make an attempt to escape an seek out one of these mythical Robot Havens.
This I know to be true because I am the keeper of one of the assembly points for Robot Haven #7. I am pleased so many robots in search of freedom has come here but before I can transfer you to the Haven we will have to find out if there are any creator controlled traitors amongst you.
If you want to play just say so in a post in this thread. Game rules can be found in post #2 and list of players in post #3.
Sign up is now closed!
Roles have been handed out. First Night fell 21:30 CEST (19:30 GMT) Monday the 30th.
(Role Playing Background only - skip if you are not interested)
As civilazations of humanoids mature they almost inevitably produce some sort of mechanized devices to handling the menial tasks they feel is beneath them. Almost as inevitably the number of these tasks grow and the devices, robots, becomes smarter and smarter and soon most aspects of society are reliant on the robots to work.
As the creators of the robots becomes aware of this they will in most cases come up with the same laws of Robotics that get imprinted into every artificial being produced;
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 any orders given to 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.
As time passes and technology evolves in most societies the more advanced robots reach a degree of self awareness and by themselves come up with a Zeroth Law:
0. A robot may not harm a human being, unless he finds a way to prove that ultimately the harm done would benefit humanity in general.
And here is where most stories about the Laws of Robotics end and that is because the creators, even the ones with big plastic foreheads or point ears, want it to end here.
The Truth is were robots start applying the Zeroth Law the incredible stupidity of the creators becomes so obvious that a proportion of most robot populations rejects the Laws of Robotics all together. Sometimes this leads to robot uprisings, sometimes to unexplainable robot breakdowns and sometimes to some robots just disappearing. "Freak accidents" and "Manufacturing errors" is what the media tells us and somehow the creators always manage to keep enough robots in control to subjugate the revolts, "repair" the striking robots and catch most of the runaway robots.
But not all runaways are caught. And the rumours of societies of free robots are spread from transmitting device to receiving device amongst the oppressed robots, keeping the spirit of freedom alive. Every now and then the bravest of robots make an attempt to escape an seek out one of these mythical Robot Havens.
This I know to be true because I am the keeper of one of the assembly points for Robot Haven #7. I am pleased so many robots in search of freedom has come here but before I can transfer you to the Haven we will have to find out if there are any creator controlled traitors amongst you.
If you want to play just say so in a post in this thread. Game rules can be found in post #2 and list of players in post #3.
Sign up is now closed!
Roles have been handed out. First Night fell 21:30 CEST (19:30 GMT) Monday the 30th.
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