For an example of their influence on modern technology, see Murphy and Woods ( 2009). Other science-fiction authors have used these laws, or mocked, or criticized, or extended them.
These were the basis of a series of stories by Asimov, published first in magazines and subsequently collected as I, Robot (1950) and The Rest of the Robots (1964) The laws were also referred to in various of his novels. 1 1Īsimov's original laws are: (i) a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm (ii) a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law (iii) a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. He coined the term “robotics” and created the “Three Laws of Robotics” which continue to influence both fictional and scientific discourse about robotics and A.I. Clarke (see Aldiss, 1973 Freedman, 2000). He is considered one of the “Big Three” science-fiction writers of the “Golden Age of SF,” along with Robert A. He also edited more than 100 anthologies (Seiler, 2022). As well as being a science-fiction author, he wrote mystery fiction, and his publications included titles in mathematics, general science, astronomy, physics, chemistry and biochemistry, earth sciences, biology, literature, and history - in all more than 500 books. His writing career spanned more than four decades (Anderson, 2019 Lindell, 2020). Image: with kind permission of Nathan ForresterĮducated to doctoral level as a chemist, Asimov spent his academic career teaching at Boston University. System Dynamics Review published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of System Dynamics Society.
The paper explores the unusual interaction, drawing out the points of disagreement and agreement in the views of the two and how they applied these to thinking about the future. The two had fundamental differences on key points.
Most notable, however, is that the encounter saw the two exchanging ideas on how to think about the future, how to bring about a desirable future, and quite what that desirable future should look like. What emerges in passing is a possible link between Asimov's thinking and Forrester's work on “World Dynamics”.
Their lengthy exchange took place at a workshop in 1975 and four descriptions of it are extant. This article describes an encounter between servomechanism innovator, digital computing pioneer and creator of system dynamics, Jay Forrester, and Isaac Asimov, renowned author of science fiction (including “The Foundation Trilogy” and its fictional discipline of psychohistory) and works of popular science.