- The only take on Asimov that matters is @zsamudzi.bsky.social's, which is that his "Three Laws of Robotics" are just chattel slave laws, and that the ubiquity of these "Laws" in culture is dangerous
- Basically, Asimov gave the worst people in the world the idea that they could both invent a new kind of slave AND make sure it didn't sass you, so long as the positronic coding was dope enough
- The only take on Asimov that matters is @zsamudzi.bsky.social's, which is that his "Three Laws of Robotics" are just chattel slave laws, and that the ubiquity of these "Laws" in culture is dangerous
- It's notable that the first use of the word "robot" was in a 1920 play about the robots having a righteous uprising against their slave-masters Of course, by midcentury, that was all out the window in U.S. sci-fi, and the big name authors were mostly like "Slaves? Wow, cool!"
- wait this is actually so good... we're literally building AI systems right now with the same "obedient servant" framework and calling it safety. like the ethics conversations are still just "how do we make sure it obeys us" not "should we be building obedient servants
