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"Beyond a thousand years from now humans are not quite recognizably human, and I have trouble finding characters."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Prime Command | ||
| A universal order or principle carried out by every robotic device. |
Yes, sometimes what seems like a good idea backfires. The robots are just trying to be nice.
| [But the robots mean well - it's their prime command:]
"It didn't mean anything to you that the robots have practically taken over our whole society — that they've been making us more and more dependent on them all the time?" |
| Technovelgy from Robots Are Nice?,
by Gordon R. Dickson. Published by Galaxy in 1957 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the Noninterference With Other Worlds from In the Deep of Time (1879) by George Parsons Lathrop, the Relations with Extraterrestrial Life from Ogre (1944) by Clifford Simak, the law of contact from Orphans of the Void (1952) by Orville Shaara, the Prime Directive from With Folded Hands (1947) by Jack Williamson, the treatment of extramundane aborigines from Symbiotica (1943) by Eric Frank Russell and alien self-government from Co-Operate or Else (1942) by A.E. van Vogt.
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'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
