The Fifth Law

By Stephen W. Wanpok

The main plot of The Fifth Law revolves around a retirement habitat on an idyllic tropical island where the inhabitants have an average age of 110 years. Global warming and other environmental factors are building to a crisis-level situation at the habitat.

The story explores human versus robot, robot versus robot, as well as human versus human encounters in various engaging scenarios. For robots to be effective in executing their tasks without harming their human owners, the decades-old Asimov Laws are stringently enforced by the International Agency for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (IARAI). Safeguards against intrusion by rogue robots are also required by IARAI. To augment these laws as well as a more recent Fourth Law, a robot researcher proposes a fifth law that champions 'the spirit of brotherhood' amongst robots for ratification by IARAI. Inadvertently, the application of the Fifth Law results in an emergent consciousness in the robots.

A business tycoon (Jeremy), who has ambitions to develop island resorts, enlists the help of a renowned climate advocate to acquire the retirement habitat. On the side, he also plans to salvage some sunken treasures in the surrounding waters. A voting procedure is set up for approval of sale by the owners. However, the outsiders run into opposition from the habitat's manager (Timorine), who assembles a ragbag team comprising inhabitants, robots and robot experts. The rivalries between the two groups are closely fought and further complicated by political brinkmanship in the South China Sea. The home team tactically applies experimental robotic technology based on the Fifth Law to overcome challenges in salvaging the sunken cargo. In addition, the centenarians contribute their skills and knowledge to tackle problems as they arise. A fierce underwater battle is fought between the two groups of robots, and Jeremy's team is forced to retreat. Armed with cash from auctioning the partially recovered cargo, the home team now challenges the tycoon's proposal. In the vote for ownership of the island, Jeremy is narrowly defeated. Applying power negotiation tactics, the tycoon's team grabs a 51% stake in the island at a relatively low price. However, it is a pyrrhic victory for the island is soon devastated by a tsunami. The two groups then agreed to re-develop the island together.

The story presents a panoply of quirky, delightful human and non-human characters over a one-week period in the year 2040. A robotic dog also provides some heart-warming takes on human-robot interactions. The robotic laws, including the proposed Fifth Law, are tested to the brink whilst human ethics slither into shades of grey. The story ends with a discussion on robotic consciousness enabled by the Fifth Law.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781456626044

Book preview

owner.

Prologue

Mid 21st Century

Decades of healthcare advances, spurred by sporadic bursts of medical breakthroughs, have raised humanity’s average lifespan worldwide by at least twenty years since the turn of the millennium. As they age, senior citizens look to synthetic implants, additively printed prosthetics, and organs grown from stem cells to maintain their normal body functions.

Staying healthy – mentally, physically, and socially – is another challenge. For seniors who can afford an exotic lifestyle, boutique retirement villages have sprouted out around the world. These retirement habitats differ mainly in their lifestyle packages as well as security and privacy provisions. Some of these habitats also differentiate by targeting at specific demographics such as fourth-agers, the group of seniors beyond the mandatory retirement age of eighty.

Promising improvements across the board, robotic innovations and artificial intelligence research have leapt forward. All human demographics are increasingly dependent on robots’ physical and cognitive abilities. By the 2020s, it was universally recognised that harmonious human-machine co-existence needed to be formalised in an era of intertwined, mutually reinforcing developments in technology and society. International agencies have to be established to enforce laws and standards for regulatory oversight of interactions between humans and robots. Human dependence on machine intelligence and the delegation of critical decisions to robots have also become matters of ethical and social concern.

The International Agency for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (IARAI) and a sister body, the International Arbitration Council for Robotics and AI (IACRAI), were instituted in 2025. As an agency of the United Nations, IARAI has broad powers over the development and application of civilian robots. Effective from 2027, all robots are required to be certified by IARAI regardless of their country of origin or manufacturer. No robot or smart machine can be put into service if it does not have an IARAI-issued identification number and is not compliant with the key Robotic Laws.

To recap, the key Laws of Robotics are:

•    Zeroth Law :A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

•    First Law : A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

•    Second Law : A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

•    Third Law : A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

•    Fourth Law : No robot shall take orders from another robot, directly or otherwise.

The First, Second and Third Laws were formulated by Isaac Asimov in 1942. The Zeroth Law, a subsequent addition, is presently unimplemented due to difficulties in resolving universally acceptable definitions of humanity and harm. Because of these problems, IARAI has avoided messing with military robots which are impossible to control during conflicts. The Fourth Law was ratified in 2030 in the aftermath of a major revolt led by a robot. The incident has since become a frequently cited case study of conflicting priorities in human-robot relationships.

To rationalise these laws and impose consistency in their execution, IARAI has developed algorithms and software that must be installed in every certified robot. The First, Second and Third Laws cannot be deactivated without prior IARAI approval because this would cause the robot’s ID number to be immediately corrupted. Only a certified IARAI representative or a professional robopsychologist can deactivate the Fourth Law and only under exceptional circumstances. In the event of violation, the complaint will be referred to IACRAI for arbitration.

To facilitate in dispute resolution and research, all robotic activities are automatically logged by a video-camera installed between the robot’s eyes and stored in the robot’s blackbox for future reference. The reasoning steps used by the robot in understanding and executing an instruction are also captured and can be reviewed by robopsychologists or researchers. Ambient sounds, including distant communication with humans, are also captured.

To counter terrorist threats and infiltration, a robot is required to execute a mutual authentication protocol upon meeting another robot. One robot’s authentication program will extract the ID number of the other robot and subject it to a series of mathematical transformations. The result has to be a six-digit prime number if the identification number is genuine. A robot is required to report immediately to IARAI upon encountering any unidentified robot.

For public education and more effective regulatory oversight, IARAI has also redefined the classification of robots as follows:

On a broader global context, climate change has made visible impact everywhere. Sea levels have risen due to global warming, submerging several low islands and coastal lands. Undersea earthquakes have also increased in magnitude and frequency. The Pacific Ring of Fire continues to enlarge in the wake of a series of tectonic movements in the Pacific and Antarctic Oceans, adding more imperilled islands in its grasp.

Moreover, the world is no closer to global peace or political integration. As a case in point, the unresolved territorial claims over shoals of islands in the South China Sea have continued to simmer for over five decades. Several countries have drawn their claim lines, of which China’s are the most extensive. Intermittent territorial disputes are resolved more by contests of wills and brinkmanship than by due process of international laws and agreements. As can be expected, the United States continues to maintain a naval presence to protect its strategic interests in the outcomes – and to tweak circumstances in its favour.

The story begins on one Friday in August 2040.

Table of Content

Prologue

Friday

01

02

03

04

05

06

Saturday

07

08

09

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

Sunday

28

29

30

31

32

33

Monday

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

Tuesday

48

49

50

51

Wednesday

52

53

54

55

56

Thursday

57

58

59

Epilogue

Friday

01

On a hot, humid Friday afternoon, the Christine, a ninety-metre luxury yacht owned by Australian property magnate, Jeremy Kerr, had anchored a few nautical miles outside the Philippines territorial waters. Jeremy had a passion for prehistoric marine life. It came to his attention that an ancient fish fossil had been found earlier in the week by fishermen trawling the waters off the Philippines Mindanao Island. After procuring the fossil at the