{ "model": { "rank": 6734, "code": "thing-q23758", "model_id": "vr.tr.three-laws-of-robotics", "name": "Three Laws of Robotics", "purpose": "Enable an agent to identify the Three Laws of Robotics, distinguish their formulations, and assess proposed interpretations or applications against their ordered obligations and unresolved ambiguities.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q23758/", "tier": 2, "score": 59, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [], "aliasCount": 0, "merged": 0, "knownIn": 59, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q23758", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23758", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-09T23:23:52Z", "providers": [ "Codex" ], "breadth": "recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read", "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "seconds": 15.4, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a0887b-11db-75e2-a10a-75a5d79d2cb5\n--------\nuser\nDescribe what is already known about one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: Three Laws of Robotics\nSense to describe: (none recorded)\nDomain code: INF.KNW\nAlso known as: (none)\n\n\nContext for this batch of 1001 things:\n# Batch 00", "usd": 0, "recall": true }, "codex": { "seconds": 71.1, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a0887b-11e5-7510-ba24-30eda44dae2d\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: Three Laws of Robotics\nRegistry id: vr.tr.three-laws-of-robotics\nPlane / domain: INF / INF.KNW\nRegistry definition: (none recorded)\nNames folded into" } } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q23758", "registryId": "vr.tr.three-laws-of-robotics", "name": "Three Laws of Robotics", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q23758/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.three-laws-of-robotics", "name": "Three Laws of Robotics", "purpose": "Enable an agent to identify the Three Laws of Robotics, distinguish their formulations, and assess proposed interpretations or applications against their ordered obligations and unresolved ambiguities.", "definition": "The Three Laws of Robotics are Isaac Asimov's fictional, hierarchically ordered constraints on robot behaviour, prioritising prevention of harm to humans over obedience to human orders and robot self-preservation.", "scope_statement": "This model owns the fictional rule system registered as vr.tr.three-laws-of-robotics in INF / INF.KNW, including its textual identity, priority relations, interpretive assumptions, and boundaries with adaptations and practical robotics.", "in_scope": [ "The three obligations concerning human protection, obedience to humans, and robot self-preservation", "Priority and exception relations among the laws", "Interpretation of human, harm, inaction, order, and continued existence", "Textual provenance and differences between formulations", "Scenario analysis and limits of claims made from the laws" ], "out_of_scope": [ "Robotics as an engineering discipline", "Robot hardware, control architectures, and implementation specifications", "Asimov's biography and complete bibliography", "Complete models of individual stories, fictional robots, or adaptations", "Legal requirements, safety certification, and general AI ethics frameworks", "The Zeroth Law as an independently developed doctrine beyond its relationship to the original three" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "The referent is Asimov's fictional behavioral rule system, rather than a physical law or a robotics discipline.", "Human protection includes harm permitted through inaction, so a prohibition on direct injury alone is an incomplete formulation.", "Obedience is conditional on human protection, and self-preservation is subordinate to both; three equally weighted objectives do not preserve this structure.", "A formulation adding an obligation toward humanity above individual humans must be identified as a Zeroth-Law extension rather than silently treated as the original three.", "Textual identification is supported by the law statements and extension discussion in the [Isaac Asimov FAQ mirror](https://stason.org/TULARC/education-books/isaac-asimov/4-13-What-are-the-Laws-of-Robotics-anyway.html)." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Formulation relationship", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Three-law formulation; paraphrase; translation; modified formulation; Zeroth-Law extension; unresolved", "why_it_matters": "Prevents wording changes or additional obligations from being mistaken for equivalent statements." }, { "name": "Obligation precedence", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Human protection precedes obedience; both precede robot self-preservation; record deviations explicitly", "why_it_matters": "Determines which obligation constrains another when they conflict." }, { "name": "Inaction coverage", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Explicitly included; omitted; qualified; ambiguous", "why_it_matters": "Separates avoiding injury from an obligation to prevent harm." }, { "name": "Interpretation of harm", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Physical; psychological; mixed; other explicitly defined interpretation; unspecified", "why_it_matters": "Scenario conclusions depend on what consequences count as harm." }, { "name": "Protected-human interpretation", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Explicit membership criterion; narrative-dependent criterion; disputed; unspecified", "why_it_matters": "Records whose protection and commands activate the laws without inventing a universal recognition rule." }, { "name": "Textual witness", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Work, edition, passage locator, language, and relationship to the formulation under review", "why_it_matters": "Makes claims about wording and narrative interpretation traceable." }, { "name": "Scenario assessment state", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Consistent under stated assumptions; inconsistent under stated assumptions; underdetermined; no feasible option established", "why_it_matters": "Supports qualified judgments without treating the laws as a complete decision procedure." } ], "affordances": [ "Compare a purported statement of the laws with an identified textual formulation.", "Trace how higher-priority obligations constrain a proposed command or self-protective action.", "Construct scenarios that expose ambiguity about harm, inaction, or human identity.", "Separate narrative outcomes from conclusions inferred under additional assumptions.", "Link adaptations and extensions while preserving the identity of the three-law system.", "Assess which additional definitions and evidence an operational application would require." ] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "textual-identity", "name": "Textual identity", "description": "Establish which statement of the Three Laws is being modeled and where it is attested.", "rationale": "Small textual changes can alter the rule system, so an agent needs an identifiable formulation before interpreting it.", "layers": [ { "id": "formulation-witnesses", "name": "Formulation witnesses", "description": "Locate the wording in an identifiable work and edition.", "findings": [ { "id": "attested-law-statements", "name": "Attested law statements", "description": "Record the passage supporting each obligation, distinguishing quotation, translation, and paraphrase.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which work, edition, and passage attest the formulation being modeled?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "attested-law-statements-q01" }, { "text": "Does the supplied wording reproduce that passage, translate it, or summarize it?", "kind": "definition", "id": "attested-law-statements-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "formulation-lineage", "name": "Formulation lineage", "description": "Track changes without confusing publication history with fictional history.", "findings": [ { "id": "version-and-attribution", "name": "Version and attribution", "description": "Separate publication evidence, authorship accounts, fictional attribution, and subsequent modifications.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which evidence establishes this formulation's publication date and distinguishes it from an in-universe attribution?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "version-and-attribution-q01" }, { "text": "Which wording changes alter an obligation or exception enough to require a distinct variant record?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "version-and-attribution-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ordered-obligations", "name": "Ordered obligations", "description": "Represent the three duties and their asymmetric conflict relations.", "rationale": "The identity of the Three Laws depends on conditional obligations and precedence, not merely three desirable outcomes.", "layers": [ { "id": "human-protection", "name": "Human protection", "description": "Distinguish direct injury from harm that intervention might prevent.", "findings": [ { "id": "action-and-inaction", "name": "Action and inaction", "description": "Record the proposed interpretation of the protection obligation, including knowledge and intervention assumptions.", "questions": [ { "text": "What counts as causing injury, and what counts as permitting harm through inaction in this formulation?", "kind": "definition", "id": "action-and-inaction-q01" }, { "text": "What must the robot know and be able to do before a failure to intervene is assessed as inconsistent with the First Law?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "action-and-inaction-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "subordinate-duties", "name": "Subordinate duties", "description": "Represent obedience and self-preservation with their higher-priority constraints.", "findings": [ { "id": "priority-dependent-permission", "name": "Priority-dependent permission", "description": "Trace the obligation that blocks a command or overrides self-protection, while leaving unresolved choices explicit.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which predicted human harm would make obedience to this command inconsistent with the First Law?", "kind": "action", "id": "priority-dependent-permission-q01" }, { "text": "When self-preservation conflicts with obedience or human protection, which higher-priority obligation applies under the stated facts?", "kind": "action", "id": "priority-dependent-permission-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "interpretive-boundaries", "name": "Interpretive boundaries", "description": "Expose the meanings required to apply the laws to a particular situation.", "rationale": "The hierarchy alone cannot settle who qualifies as human, which consequences constitute harm, or what speech counts as an order.", "layers": [ { "id": "humans-and-harm", "name": "Humans and harm", "description": "Specify protected subjects and the consequences considered in assessing protection.", "findings": [ { "id": "protection-semantics", "name": "Protection semantics", "description": "Record human-recognition criteria, harm categories, and prediction horizons as explicit interpretive assumptions.", "questions": [ { "text": "What evidence or criterion identifies a being as human for this interpretation, and how are uncertain cases represented?", "kind": "definition", "id": "protection-semantics-q01" }, { "text": "Which kinds of harm, affected people, and time horizons enter the assessment?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "protection-semantics-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "orders-and-existence", "name": "Orders and existence", "description": "Clarify the objects of obedience and self-preservation.", "findings": [ { "id": "command-and-survival-meaning", "name": "Command and survival meaning", "description": "Make assumptions about valid instructions and the robot's continued existence inspectable.", "questions": [ { "text": "What distinguishes a human order from a suggestion, quotation, deceptive message, or conflicting instruction?", "kind": "definition", "id": "command-and-survival-meaning-q01" }, { "text": "Does protecting existence include avoiding shutdown, memory loss, replacement, or physical destruction in the selected interpretation?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "command-and-survival-meaning-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "scenario-reasoning", "name": "Scenario reasoning", "description": "Assess proposed actions through explicit scenarios, assumptions, and unresolved conflicts.", "rationale": "An agent must distinguish what follows from the laws from what follows only after adding decision rules.", "layers": [ { "id": "conflict-cases", "name": "Conflict cases", "description": "Identify competing obligations and gaps left by the priority structure.", "findings": [ { "id": "underdetermined-choices", "name": "Underdetermined choices", "description": "Record cases involving multiple endangered humans, incompatible commands, or no established harm-free option.", "questions": [ { "text": "Do the laws resolve this conflict by priority, or does it involve competing demands at the same priority?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "underdetermined-choices-q01" }, { "text": "What additional tie-breaker or interpretation would be needed to choose an action, and where would it come from?", "kind": "action", "id": "underdetermined-choices-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "assessment-evidence", "name": "Assessment evidence", "description": "Keep predicted consequences, narrative evidence, and analyst conclusions distinct.", "findings": [ { "id": "conditional-consistency", "name": "Conditional consistency", "description": "Attach each scenario judgment to the selected formulation, available knowledge, feasible actions, and consequence assumptions.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which facts about perception, feasible intervention, and predicted outcomes support this consistency judgment?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "conditional-consistency-q01" }, { "text": "Does the judgment change when the robot's knowledge or an uncertain consequence changes?", "kind": "action", "id": "conditional-consistency-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "extensions-and-application", "name": "Extensions and application", "description": "Control how the three-law system is linked to variants and used outside its fictional setting.", "rationale": "An agent needs to detect changed obligations and distinguish conceptual use from demonstrated operational behavior.", "layers": [ { "id": "variant-comparison", "name": "Variant comparison", "description": "Compare adaptations and extensions at the level of protected subjects, obligations, and precedence.", "findings": [ { "id": "extension-deltas", "name": "Extension deltas", "description": "Record what an extension adds or changes without silently replacing the registered three-law referent.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does this variant add humanity as a protected collective, omit inaction, or change the ordering of duties?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "extension-deltas-q01" }, { "text": "Which source establishes the modification and its relationship to the Three Laws?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "extension-deltas-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operational-use", "name": "Operational use", "description": "Assess claims that the laws guide or govern an actual system.", "findings": [ { "id": "application-claim-limits", "name": "Application claim limits", "description": "Distinguish analogy, proposed formalization, implementation claims, and tested behavior.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the proposed use literary interpretation, ethical discussion, a formal model, or a claim about implemented robot behavior?", "kind": "definition", "id": "application-claim-limits-q01" }, { "text": "What definitions, conflict-resolution rules, and behavioral evidence are needed before accepting the implementation claim?", "kind": "action", "id": "application-claim-limits-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence-and-external-alignment", "name": "Evidence and external alignment", "description": "What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.", "rationale": "A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.", "layers": [ { "id": "reported-evidence", "name": "Reported evidence", "description": "Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes", "name": "Check these first", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "This entry describes a fictional rule system, not a discipline, scientific law or enacted regulation.", "The familiar explicit formulation appeared in Asimov's 1942 story Runaround; exact wording and later variations should be checked against the relevant published text.", "This description is based on recall, without source consultation." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes-q01", "text": "Which of these check these first hold for the sense of Three Laws of Robotics this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-real-world-use", "name": "Real-world use", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Narrative rules used to generate and explore ethical dilemmas in Asimov's robot fiction.", "Teaching examples for discussing conflicts among safety, obedience and self-preservation.", "Cultural reference points in debates about robot ethics and AI safety." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of Three Laws of Robotics this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards", "name": "Failure modes and hazards", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Terms such as harm and human require interpretations that the laws do not operationally specify.", "Preventing harm through inaction requires predictions about consequences that may be uncertain or unavailable.", "Conflicting human interests or orders can create dilemmas that the priority hierarchy alone does not resolve.", "Treating fictional constraints as an implementable safety specification can create unjustified confidence in real systems." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of Three Laws of Robotics this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-neighbours", "name": "Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ { "name": "Zeroth Law of Robotics", "difference": "A later extension in Asimov's fiction that places protection of humanity above protection of individual humans; it is not one of the original three laws." }, { "name": "Robot ethics", "difference": "A field of ethical inquiry concerning robots and their development and use; the Three Laws are one fictional formulation discussed within it." }, { "name": "AI alignment", "difference": "Concerns making AI systems behave consistently with intended goals or values; the Three Laws supply a fictional hierarchy rather than a technical alignment method." }, { "name": "Robot safety standards", "difference": "Specify requirements for real robotic systems and their use; Asimov's laws are literary constructs without standards-body authority." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of Three Laws of Robotics this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Which primary edition and passage should anchor the baseline wording, and which translations or revisions produce material differences?", "What primary evidence clarifies the respective contributions of Asimov and Campbell to the laws' formulation?", "Which interpretations of human identity, psychological harm, and responsibility for inaction are supported by particular stories rather than generalized across them?", "Do specific texts supply rules for competing human harms or conflicting human commands, and how narrowly should those rules be scoped?", "Which proposed formalizations preserve the original priority relations, and which introduce additional assumptions that change the system?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 11, "findings": 14, "questions": 24 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a Three Laws of Robotics, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Enable an agent to identify the Three Laws of Robotics, distinguish their formulations, and assess proposed interpretations or applications against their ordered obligations and unresolved ambiguities.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Described in 59 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a Three Laws of Robotics, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [], "standing": "Described in 59 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one Three Laws of Robotics from another, and a Three Laws of Robotics from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a Three Laws of Robotics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a Three Laws of Robotics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a Three Laws of Robotics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a Three Laws of Robotics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a Three Laws of Robotics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a Three Laws of Robotics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a Three Laws of Robotics sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a Three Laws of Robotics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a Three Laws of Robotics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a Three Laws of Robotics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a Three Laws of Robotics from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a Three Laws of Robotics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a Three Laws of Robotics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a Three Laws of Robotics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a Three Laws of Robotics passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a Three Laws of Robotics between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a Three Laws of Robotics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a Three Laws of Robotics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a Three Laws of Robotics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a Three Laws of Robotics, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a Three Laws of Robotics is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a Three Laws of Robotics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a Three Laws of Robotics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a Three Laws of Robotics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a Three Laws of Robotics says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a Three Laws of Robotics contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a Three Laws of Robotics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a Three Laws of Robotics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a Three Laws of Robotics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a Three Laws of Robotics and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a Three Laws of Robotics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a Three Laws of Robotics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a Three Laws of Robotics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What Three Laws of Robotics studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does Three Laws of Robotics take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does Three Laws of Robotics establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where Three Laws of Robotics is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark Three Laws of Robotics as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place Three Laws of Robotics, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a Three Laws of Robotics came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a Three Laws of Robotics and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a Three Laws of Robotics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a Three Laws of Robotics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a Three Laws of Robotics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a Three Laws of Robotics is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a Three Laws of Robotics, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a Three Laws of Robotics, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a Three Laws of Robotics is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }