Marooned Off Vesta was written in 1938 by Isaac Asimov when he was 18 years old. It was one of the first science fiction stories that I read as a kid back in the ’50s. It deals with three astronauts shipwrecked in orbit around the asteroid and how they use their limited resources to save themselves.
This video put together from images taken by the Dawn spacecraft shows what it might be like to be marooned off Vesta.
Video Credit: NASA, DLR
Isaac Asimov propounded the Three Laws of Robotics in his short story collection I, Robot.
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 the orders given to 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 Laws.
It seem that the Siri function in the new iPhone 4S obeys these laws, and that is causing consternation for some feminists. In apparent obedience to the First Law, Siri doesn’t seem to be able to find abortion clinics.
Is this more of Apple’s pro-family attitude showing? They don’t let porn into their iTunes/iPod/iPad/iPhone ecosystem.
Allahpundit suggest that it might be something deeper. Steve Jobs was adopted. As an adult, he sought out his birth mother to thank her for not having an abortion. It could be that Siri’s pro-life attitudes are one more dent that Jobs has made in the Universe.
Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
—Isaac Asimov
