This sermon was written by and published for : Edan
Isaac Asimov’s ‘Three Laws of Robotics’
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to
harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict
with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the
First or Second Law.
The path of every person is different, but many waypoints along those paths may be the same.
Maybe we try to be more compassionate, maybe we try to keep our promises more often, maybe
we try to be more thoughtful.. Such an undertaking I feel is a good one; the more we help others
the more help they can also give and so on.
But as we change we may begin to gather a little collection of these ‘virtues’ and there’s a
temptation I see that within this we start standing our ground on our ‘virtues’. We say ‘this is how
good I am’, holding them up as individual badges of honour and not seeing that sometimes we may
have to bend these virtues to the situation at hand, that all actions are interrelated.
You might want to spend a few moments thinking about your own badges of virtue.
So you keep your promises, but what happens if there’s a promise you really can’t keep? Will you
hold on to that stubborn virtue of never breaking your promises so you can keep that badge shiny,
or will you accept that sometimes it may not be appropriate? Some things are more important.
While writing this I was drawn to the ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ (see the beginning of this sermon).
I feel that in situations where we cling to virtue, perhaps we should consider something more like
this:
Edan’s ‘Two Laws of Virtue’
1. A person may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to
harm.
2. A person may follow their own morals except where such morals would conflict with the First
Law.
Now this is a pretty extreme example because I have gone with the idea of human protection from
the ‘Three Laws of Robotics’… but I think my example stands as a reminder that there is not a ‘cut
and dry’ process for deciding what is appropriate. The second law is a reminder that sometimes
what we consider to be the ‘right’ way according to our virtues may cloud our judgement of a
situation. If our ‘virtue’ prevents us from giving any help we need to give then it stops being a
virtue.
Sometimes it’s worth handing those badges back in temporarily to make a difference in the larger
picture.
