IDK if I missed something or I just disagree, but I remember all but maybe one short story ending up with the laws working as intended (though unexpectedly) and humanity being better as a result.
Didn't they end with humanity being controlled by a hyper-intelligent benevolent dictator, which ensured humans were happy and on a good path?
Listen, people talk shit about rules of government but it doesn't really matter what the government is as long as the people get what they truly want that's beneficial to them and ideally our culture and environment.
I thought it was Asiimovs books, but apparently not. Which one had the 3 fundamental rules lead to the solution basically being: "Humans can not truly be safe unless they're extinct" or something along those lines... Been a long time since I've explored the subjects.
I mean... Kind of Asimov's robot series? Except the androids/robots were trying so hard to stay to the rules and protect humans but at every chance they could humans fucked that up or refused to see the plan.
At least as I recall, the robots basically came up with multi-millenia spanning plans that would solve all of humanity's problems and then humans were like: "Cool. But what if we made robots detectives and they could also target people we don't like?" Then the robots fucked off for a while and a bunch of stuff happened and... Yeah. Asimov wrote a lot of books.
The robot that was bestowed with unimaginable precognician that survived for 20 Millenia patiently guiding humanity along the right path as prescribed by the Zeroth law of robotics forced on it that drove all other robots mad?
The robot that at every turn was curtailed by human lust and greed? That had to do horrible things because humanity lacked the foresight to see that charging a living being with "Doing no harm to humanity or by inaction causing harm" would be just awful for that soul?
Pretty sure Demerzel always worked in the shadows for the greater good. Especially when operating as Olivaw.
Seems to me like humans are the ones that kept messing up the laws of robotics. Not the other way around.
You're in for a good couple of weeks to months of reading depending on how fast you read.
Really fun set of series. Reddit had a great Asimov sub with recommended reading orders since Asimov had the tendency to publish things in a weird timeline. Any way you choose is a fantastic time though.