Robots and Empire (1985); a variant of this first occurred in The Evitable Conflict (1950) as: No robot may harm humanity, or through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
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A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
— Isaac Asimov
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm." in the context of "Robots and Empire (1985); a variant of this first occurred in The Evitable Conflict (1950) as: No robot may harm humanity, or through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm." to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Isaac Asimov" (Quotes, The Three Laws of Robotics (1942), The Third Law of Robotics)
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
About Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov (c. 2 January 1920 – 6 April 1992) was a Russian-born American biochemist who was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, his works include the Foundation series and I, Robot.
About Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov (c. 2 January 1920 – 6 April 1992) was a Russian-born American biochemist who was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, his works include the Foundation series and I, Robot.
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