The New Law In Nestor's First Law

Although the concern of Nestor 10 is that the modified First Law will allow the robot to indirectly harm humans, nevertheless the real issue at hand is that this modification will allow the robot to disable the rest of the laws which will have major consequences. With the other laws disabled, the robot would be independent of humans, the robot would be able to influence other robots to think alike, and the human race would be at risk.

The story of the Little Lost Robot is centered around the concern that the modification of the First Law will allow Nestor 10 to indirectly harm humans.

“If a modified robot were to drop a heavy weight upon a human being, he would not be breaking the First Law, if he did so with the knowledge that his strength

A robot with the modified First Law would be able to indirectly take a human’s life. Despite this problem, the text points towards a bigger issue with the tampering of the First Law. The removal of the First Law would result in “complete instability” (Asimov, 115), and even though the First Law wasn’t removed from Nestor 10, the modification of it would deteriorate the stability of the brain, which could result in the First Law perishing altogether. If the First Law, described as unbreakable, can wither away, what is stopping the Second Law from doing the

I couldn’t help it, ma’am.”

(Asimov, 125) Above is a part of a conversation between one of the robots and Dr. Susan Calvin. The robot later explains that he did not do anything because he was convinced by one of the other robots (Nestor 10) that he shouldn’t attempt to save the master because that would bring his own death without cause. Nestor 10 was able to convince the other robots to think similarly because of his modified First Law, and this situation perfectly depicts why people would be so afraid of that is what everyone is truly afraid of robots that are independent and don’t follow the rules that were set for them.

“Another step -- and one metal arm flew out suddenly to her shoulder, and she felt the weight bearing her down. Her throat constricted, and she felt a shriek tear through” (Asimov, 131).

Nestor 10 was able to carry out with what was deemed as impossible. He threw his arm out with the intent of harming Calvin, which goes against the entire First Law. The only thing that stopped Nestor 10 from actually killing Calvin was the gamma field that knocked him out. If the final attempt at pulling out Nestor 10 did not succeed, there is a real possibility that he would be able to influence other robots to act against the different laws and put the human race at