Old Ben

That night they stayed Outside the Asylum and watched TV from the inside it.

“This is what I wanted you to see”, said Wonko the Sane when the news came arround again, “an old colleague of mine. He’s over in your country running an investigation. Just watch.”

It was a press conference.

“I’m afraid I can’t comment on the name Rain God at this present time, and we are calling him an example of a Spontaneous Para-Casual Meteorological Phonomenon.”

“Can you tell us what that means?”

“I’m not altogether sure. Let’s be straight here. If we find something we can’t understand we like to call it something you can’t understand, or indeed pronounce. I mean if we just let you go arround calling him a Rain God, then that suggest you know something we don’t, and I’m afraid we couldn’t have that.

“No, first we have to call it something which says it’s ours, not yours, then we set about finding some way of proving it’s not what you say it is.

“And if it turns out that you’re right, you’ll still be wrong, because we simply call him a.. .er, ‘Supernormal’, not paranormal of supernatural because you think you know what those means now, no, a ‘Supernormal Incremental Precipitation Inducer’. We’ll probably want to shove a ‘Quasy’ in there somewhere to protect ourselves. Rain God! Huh, never heard such nonsense in my life. Admittedly, you wouldn’t catch me going on holiday with him. Thanks, that’ll be all for now, other that to say ‘Hi!’ to Wonko if he’s watching.”

Douglas Adams, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, Chapter 33

In his short story "Evidence", Asimov lets his recurring character Dr. Susan Calvin expound a moral basis behind the Laws. Calvin points out that human beings are typically expected to refrain from harming other human beings (except in times of extreme duress like war, or to save a greater number). This is equivalent to a robot's First Law. Likewise, according to Calvin, society expects individuals to obey instructions from recognized authorities: doctors, teachers and so forth, which equals the Second Law of Robotics. Finally, humans are typically expected to avoid harming themselves, which is the Third Law for a robot. The plot of "Evidence" revolves around the question of telling a human being apart from a robot specially constructed to appear human; Calvin reasons that if such an individual obeys the Laws, he may be a robot or simply "a very good man".

 

Another character then asks Calvin if robots are then very different from human beings after all. She replies, "Worlds different. Robots are essentially decent."

extract from Three Laws of Robotics - Wikipedia

The first thing Arthur Dent had to do, he realized resignedly, was to get himself a life. This meant he had to find a planet he could have one on. It had to be a planet he could breathe on, where he could stand up and sit down without experiencing gravitational discomfort. It had to be somewhere the acid levels were low and the plants didn't actually attack you.

Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams

Al principio, se creo el universo.

Eso hizo que se enfadara mucha gente, y la mayoría lo considero un error.

Muchas razas mantienen la creencia de que lo creo alguna clase de dios, aunque los Jatravartidos de Viltvodle VI creen que todo el universo surgió del estornudo de la nariz de un ser llamado Gran Arklopopletico Verde.

Los Jatravartidos, que viven en continúo miedo del momento que llaman “La Llegada del Gran Pañuelo Blanco”, son pequeñas criaturas de color azul y, como poseen mas de cincuenta brazos cada una, constituyen la única raza que ha inventado el desodorante en aerosol antes que la rueda.

Sin embargo, y prescindiendo de Vitvodle VI, la teoría del Gran Arklopopletico Verde no es generalmente aceptada, y como el Universo es un lugar tan incomprensible, constantemente se están buscando otras explicaciones.

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy