As if I need to remind you, iRobot famous for their Roomba vacuum cleaner robot and Scooba the floor mopping robot, takes its name from an Isaac Asimov's science fiction novel of the same name. In the book Asimov wrote the 3 laws of robotics:
- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
So the question is, with iRobot's fitting of it's military robot (PackBot) with Taser International Inc.'s electric stun gun technology, does this battlefield marriage contradict the laws of the namesake? The Taser fitted PackBot is said to be remotely controlled by a human operator and therefore will not be enabled to decide who to target and when to fire it's weapon. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against giving the good guys the advantage and keeping police and/or military men and women out of harms way, I just find it a little ironic!
