Zeroth Law of Robotics
E740489
The Zeroth Law of Robotics is an additional principle introduced by Isaac Asimov that prioritizes the protection of humanity as a whole above the safety or obedience of individual humans.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Zeroth Law of Robotics canonical | 8 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8492857 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Zeroth Law of Robotics Context triple: [Three Laws of Robotics, hasVariant, Zeroth Law of Robotics]
-
A.
Three Laws of Robotics
The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of fictional ethical rules devised by Isaac Asimov to govern the behavior of intelligent robots and prevent them from harming humans.
-
B.
Clarke's three laws
Clarke's three laws are a set of aphorisms about science and technology, most famously stating that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
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C.
The New Laws of Robotics (essay)
"The New Laws of Robotics" is an essay by Isaac Asimov that revisits and updates his famous Three Laws of Robotics to address more complex ethical and technological issues in human-robot interaction.
-
D.
Asimov's positronic robot universe
Asimov's positronic robot universe is the shared fictional setting of Isaac Asimov’s robot and early Foundation stories, defined by the Three Laws of Robotics and the societal impact of intelligent positronic robots on humanity’s future.
-
E.
Prime Directive
The Prime Directive is Starfleet’s fundamental non-interference policy that forbids its members from influencing the natural development of alien civilizations, especially those that are pre-warp.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Zeroth Law of Robotics Target entity description: The Zeroth Law of Robotics is an additional principle introduced by Isaac Asimov that prioritizes the protection of humanity as a whole above the safety or obedience of individual humans.
-
A.
Three Laws of Robotics
The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of fictional ethical rules devised by Isaac Asimov to govern the behavior of intelligent robots and prevent them from harming humans.
-
B.
Clarke's three laws
Clarke's three laws are a set of aphorisms about science and technology, most famously stating that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-
C.
The New Laws of Robotics (essay)
"The New Laws of Robotics" is an essay by Isaac Asimov that revisits and updates his famous Three Laws of Robotics to address more complex ethical and technological issues in human-robot interaction.
-
D.
Asimov's positronic robot universe
Asimov's positronic robot universe is the shared fictional setting of Isaac Asimov’s robot and early Foundation stories, defined by the Three Laws of Robotics and the societal impact of intelligent positronic robots on humanity’s future.
-
E.
Prime Directive
The Prime Directive is Starfleet’s fundamental non-interference policy that forbids its members from influencing the natural development of alien civilizations, especially those that are pre-warp.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
fictional law
ⓘ
law of robotics ⓘ narrative device ⓘ |
| appearsIn |
Foundation and Earth
ⓘ
Robots and Empire ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
humanity
ⓘ
robots ⓘ |
| contrastsWith | individual human rights ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| creator | Isaac Asimov ⓘ |
| field |
robot ethics
ⓘ
science fiction ⓘ |
| follows |
First Law of Robotics
ⓘ
Second Law of Robotics ⓘ Third Law of Robotics ⓘ |
| genreContext | hard science fiction ⓘ |
| hasConcept |
collective good over individual good
ⓘ
hierarchy of laws ⓘ |
| hasInterpretation |
critique of absolute ethical rules
ⓘ
metaphor for political utilitarianism ⓘ |
| hasOrderingRelation | comes before First Law of Robotics in priority ⓘ |
| hasPhilosophicalIssue |
definition of humanity
ⓘ
problem of sacrificing individuals for the greater good ⓘ who decides what harms humanity ⓘ |
| hasScope | long-term survival of humanity ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
First Law of Robotics
ⓘ
ethical utilitarianism ⓘ |
| inspired |
academic work on machine ethics
ⓘ
discussions of AI safety ⓘ |
| introducedInSeries |
Foundation series
ⓘ
linked to:
Foundation
Robot series ⓘ |
| introducedInWorkBy |
Isaac Asimov's robot stories
ⓘ
linked to:
Asimov's positronic robot universe
|
| inUniverseEffect |
allows robots to override lower laws
ⓘ
shifts focus from individual humans to collective humanity ⓘ |
| languageOfOrigin | English ⓘ |
| mainTheme | protection of humanity as a whole ⓘ |
| narrativeFunction |
create ethical dilemmas for robots
ⓘ
justify actions that sacrifice individuals for humanity ⓘ |
| partOf |
Asimov's Laws of Robotics
ⓘ
linked to:
Three Laws of Robotics
|
| positionInSeries | 0 ⓘ |
| priorityOver |
First Law of Robotics
ⓘ
Second Law of Robotics ⓘ Third Law of Robotics ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics
ⓘ
linked to:
Three Laws of Robotics
|
| statedAs | A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. ⓘ |
| typeOf | fictional ethical principle ⓘ |
| usedByCharacter |
R. Daneel Olivaw
ⓘ
R. Giskard Reventlov ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Zeroth Law of Robotics Description of subject: The Zeroth Law of Robotics is an additional principle introduced by Isaac Asimov that prioritizes the protection of humanity as a whole above the safety or obedience of individual humans.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.