Question: When Del is explaining the night of the accident to Susan, he says that he told the robot to save the little girl. The robot ignored Del's order and chose to save him instead. Robots are supposed to follow any order they are given. Since the robot ignored Del's order, was it ever explained what happened to it or are we meant to come up with our conclusion?
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Answer: The 2nd law states they have to follow any order given by a human unless it conflicts with the 1st law. The 1st law is that a robot can not harm or by inaction cause harm to come to a human. The robot already determined Del has a better survival rate and thus, by following Del's order, it would cause it to violate the 1st law because its inactions would cause harm to Del. Nothing happened to the robot, it didn't malfunction.
Bishop73