The book I am reading right now is a completion of short stories
in the halo universe. There are a lot of interesting stories in this book but
the one I find most interesting is ”Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian.” The reason
I find this one the most interesting is because the entire premise of the laws
of robotics fascinates me in this story. If you don’t know the laws of
robotics, click HERE to find out.
The story itself isn't that interesting; it is a marine that
had cancer that needed radiation therapy on a ship inbound for some random
planet that was overrun by covenant (alien cult/ antagonist). Once he regains concourses
he finds that there was a covenant raid on the ship and he is the last human. He
is told by the AI on board the ship and it turns out it is just a small
fragment of the AI. The reason that she can’t do anything is first, she is separated
from the commands to move the ship, detonate the ship or delete herself. Not to mention in her current form, she
cannot override the laws of robotics.
The laws of robotics state that a robot must not harm
humans. For this reason is the AI not able to complete the Cole protocol if she
could, she isn't powerful to override her programming. But at the end of the
story once braid gets killed by an elite, she instantly takes out the ship. This
is the reason we need to be careful with coding. Since computers take whatever
you write literally, the laws of robotics only apply to humans and that can be
scary. Just remember, if you make a killer robot, you are not only breaking the
law, you are breaking coder’s law which is worse.
