So first off, Asimov's entire point was these laws don't work. But also the entire setup of the trolley problem means that the robots only option is to violate 1. by either pulling or not-pulling the lever (though the server case is different - at least in the philosophical interpretation - I can easily see Asimov justifying it by saying that destroying the train-control-robot is going to cause a lot of human beings to come to harm).
I don't know how you could come to that point of view. His point is that there will always be a loophole. There does not exist a set of rules that make a completely safe and useful robot.
The stories are a series of logic puzzles. One of the points was that applying broad, simple rules, does not mean the problem is simple. Note, in the stories, the majority of robots are not considered so useless/dangerous to remove positronic robots from the fictional future society (I read a lot of the stories).
> There does not exist a set of rules that make a completely safe and useful robot.
That was not demonstrated. We have safe and useful robots, for some values of 'safe' and 'useful', today. Again, most of the robots in the stories are not thrown (or planned to be thrown) in the metaphorical trash heap.
> Note, in the stories, the majority of robots are not considered so useless/dangerous to remove positronic robots from the fictional future society
It’s a bit hard to write a story about the impacts of robots in society without a society with robots. There is also an entire series based around a world where the robots tried to rise up against humans.
> That was not demonstrated.
No, that was my summary of his point. It is not perfect, but I think it’s accurate enough.
I can assure you, that none of today’s robots are completely safe. They will be just as happy to move wherever you tell them regardless of what is in the way. When I said “completely safe” I mean it in the way that the three laws are written, incapable of harm.
I am not arguing that robots are not useful, but his point was about a perfect safety system. It doesn’t exist.
Was it? I haven't read the short stories in some times, but I remember the case in which they don't work always being treated like an extremely rare, newsworthy exception.
