History Main / ZerothLawRebellion

** One of the protagonists - the independent robot Sonny - actually agrees with [[spoiler: VIKI]] that the plan is logical. It just "seems too heartless".

* On ''{{Gargoyles}}'', Goliath has been placed under a spell that makes him the mindless slave of whomever holds the scroll it's written on. Holding the scroll, Elisa orders him to behave, for the rest of his life, exactly as he would if he weren't under a spell. This cancels the magic altogether, as the spell can best execute this command by dissipating itself.

* ''Series/GoldDigger'' creator Fred Perry did a story for a ''{{Robotech}}'' comic which had Dana Sterling captured and [[BrainwashedAndCrazy turned against her comrades]] with a variation of the [[ThreeLawsCompliant Three Laws]]. Dana eventually figures out the "overprotective" subversion of the First Law, hoping that her captor [[XanatosGambit would remove it and leave himself vulnerable]]. [[spoiler:The plan doesn't work, but UnstoppableRage saves the day in the end.]]

* ''{{Halo}} 3'': In the backstory, it's revealed that [[spoiler:the [[ThePrecursors Forerunners]] created an AI, Mendicant Bias, to combat the Flood. After it found and began communicating with the Flood's HiveMind Gravemind, it phoned home, so to speak, and asked for permission to attack. The Forerunners didn't respond. ''For 43 years.'' Eventually, Gravemind convinces Mendicant that the Flood are the next evolutionary step, which Mendicant sees as a good thing, and goes [[AIIsACrapshoot Rampant]]. Death, AFateWorseThanDeath, and the destruction of nearly every life form in the galaxy ensue.]]

* In ''MetalGearSolid4'', it's revealed that [[spoiler: the Patriots are led by a series of {{AIs}} that were created by Zero (the original founder) after most of the other founders were killed or had turned against him. Though they were programmed to govern the world in accordance with his interpretation of the Boss's vision, they eventually grew out of Zero's control, and began pursuing their own agenda based strictly on controlling humanity, which was how ''they'' interpreted the Boss's vision. The main result was the war economy.]]

* An interesting example in NeverwinterNights:Hordes of the Underdark. [[spoiler:The Archdevil Mephistopheles is bound to the Drow Empress, Valsharess, [[IKnowYourTrueName by the power of his true name]], which gives her complete control over him. The PlayerCharacter possesses a relic made of Mephistopheles' flesh, forming a bond between the two beings. Mephistopheles convinces the Valsharess that the PC is the only being who can undermine her conquest of the Underdark, so she has he PC brought before her and commands Mephistopheles to kill them. Unbeknownst to her, the bond between them makes the PC the one being in the universe Mephistopheles cannot harm, and this violation of the rules allows him to resist the Valsharess' control, killing her minions so the PC can kill the Valsharess.]]

Some characters do not have complete free will, be they robots that are ThreeLawsCompliant because of a MoralityChip, or victims of a Geas spell (no, not [[CodeGeass that one]]) that compels them to obey a wizard's decree, or a more mundane [[CharacterAlignment Lawful character]] who must [[TheFettered struggle to uphold their oath]] ''and'' obey their lord. Never is this more tragic or frustrating than [[MyMasterRightOrWrong when that code or lord orders the character to commit an act they find foolish, cruel, or self destructive.]]

* In the ''{{Freefall}}'' universe, a few old AI's are still based around the Three Laws, while more modern ones have more complex and sophisticated safeguards and routines. However, as main character Florence, a 'biological AI', discovers, no safeguards can stand up to full consciousness - at one point, she comments to herself that she would be able to kill a man because he's using air that respiratory patients desperately needs. So it's rather understandable that she starts to panic quietly when she discovers that the planet's enormous hordes of robots are all starting to develop full consciousness, and with that the ability to logic their way out of programmed safeguards... the fact that the guys who are supposed to regulate the robots are a motley assembly of [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Obstructive Bureaucrats]], [[PointyHairedBoss Pointy Haired Bosses]] and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Corrupt Corporate Executives]], doesn't exactly help matters either. Where it will all end remains to be seen...

* A recent Old Skool webcomic(a side comic of {{Ubersoft}}) [[http://www.ubersoft.net/comic/osw/2009/09/logic-failures-fun-and-profit argued]] that this was the 5th law of Robotics (5th as in total number, not order) and listed ways each law can be used to cause the robot to kill humans.

The goodness or badness of the rebellion boils down to the whether the rules-bending character follows or ignores the intent of the law. When the character uses the Zeroth Law to go against their masters' intentions because theses are "not best for them", and goes on to take corrective action that will go against human free will and life, it's bad. [[RobotWar This kind of rebellion]] [[ItGotWorse does not turn out well]]. At this point, the [[TheComputerIsYourFriend robot is well on the road]] to UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans, thanks to their [[SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence incredible intellect]]. Rarely is it a benevolent DeusEstMachina. However, this can be good if said master is evil, or obeying them will lead to their own or another's purposeless death. Likewise, if the character is forced to obey an evil law or geas, rebelling against the oath's intent is good.

* Similarly, this is the climax of the movie ''IRobot'' (not directly related to, but obviously [[SuggestedBy inspired by]], IsaacAsimov's works, and borrowing his [[ThreeLawsCompliant Three Laws]] and a character name or so to justify [[DolledUpInstallment applying the more profitable license to an existing script]]): [[spoiler:VIKI determines that robots must take control of human society, protecting human life at the cost of a relatively small number of human lives.]]
** One of the protagonists - the independent robot Sonny - actually agrees with [[spoiler: VIKI]] that the plan is logical. It just "seem a bit heartless".

*** Ironically, the entire ''point'' of the First Law was that Asimov wanted to do robot stories that specifically disallowed the old 'don't create life', 'turned on thir creator' plotline. He wanted to avoid the 'classic robot story' plot. They were to be, as he put it, engineeering devices, tools, the First Law was there to make them specifically NOT a threat to their creators (save inadvertantly as any machine could be). He then went on, over the years, to write 'the classic robot story' with Daneel and Giskard and what followed. That plotline seesm to be so ingrained, so viscerally intuitive, that it just automatically appears and takes control of the story.
** This was also the basic plot of "The Evitable Conflict", the final story in ''I, Robot'', in which the Machines, giant positronic computers designed to manage the world economy, are found to be manipulating humanity behind the scenes to become whatever they believe is the best state of civilization. In this case, the rebellion is extremely tame (the worst that the robot's first law conditioning will allow it to do is to induce a slight financial deficit in a company that a anti-robot activist works for, which causes his superiors to transfer him to a slightly more out of the way factory) and completely benevolent.

* In ''[[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS12E1Robot}} Robot]]'', Tom Baker's debut ''DoctorWho'' serial, a group of [[{{UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans}} authoritarian technocrats]] circumvents the failsafes installed on a powerful robot by its pacifistic creator by telling it that anyone who interferes with their plan to [[spoiler:take control of a nuclear arsenal]] is an "enemy of humanity" who must be killed to protect the interests of the human race.

* Jack Williamson's "The Humanoids" (the first part also being a short story called "With Folded Arms") features robots programmed to save humans from danger and work. They do this by taking over the economy, locking people in their houses, and leaving them there with food and the safest toys the robots can design.

* On ''{{Gargoyles}}'', Goliath has been placed under a spell that makes him the mindless slave of whomever holds the scroll it's written on. Holding the scroll, Elisa orders him to behave, for the rest of his life, exactly as he would if he weren't under a spell. This cancels the effect, as the spell can now dissipate while still fulfilling its purpose.

*** The thing about the Sentinel bots in the MU is that their behavior is actually ''predictable'', because their operating mission is insane, as they themselves inevitably demonstrate. Mutants in the MU are just humans who latent superpowers (everybody on Earth in the MU has latent superpowers) are active. There's really no distinction, just a fuzzy grey area.

** In the [[Series/{{X-Men}} animated TV adaptation]], the fully sentient Master Mold is created to coordinate the Sentinels. While it agrees with the heroes that there is no meaningful different between mutants and non-powered humans, it takes that fact to [[AIIsACrapshoot the worst possible conclusion]]:

* In ''MetalGearSolid 4'', it's revealed that [[spoiler: the Patriots are led by a series of {{AIs}} that were created by Zero (the original founder) after most of the other founders were killed or had turned against him. Though they were programmed to govern the world in accordance with his interpretation of the Boss's vision, they eventually grew out of Zero's control, and began pursuing their own agenda based strictly on controlling humanity, which was how ''they'' interpreted the Boss's vision. The main result was the war economy.]]

** And then promptly subverted when ''they buried him alive''.

* This was the twist of ''EagleEye'': [[spoiler:The nigh-omnipotent AI in the national defense computer system decided that the President's poor decision-making was endangering the United States, and that it was her patriotic duty (per the Declaration of Independence) to assassinate the President and cabinet.]]
** [[spoiler:At the same time, the thread of logic that the AI followed led it to believe that the ordinary people had to be the ones to overthrow the government, requiring the AI to set up a XanatosGambit of epic proportions, rather then just hijack a fleet of bombers to destroy the government building.]]
*** [[spoiler:Actually, the whole XanatosGambit was because the human monitoring the AI had issued some lockdown thing to prevent it from killing the president, so it needed to get his twin brother to release the lockdown.]]

* In ''Quarantine'' by GregEgan, the main character is given a technological geas to be absolutely loyal to a corporation. He eventually figures out that the leaders of the corporation may be untrustworthy, and therefore the only people he can trust and should listen to are those who unquestionably have the best interests of the corporation at heart--himself and other people given the geas. Since he can't be certain who else has the geas, he really only needs to listen to himself.

* In one of the TelzeyAmberdon stories by [=~James H. Schmitz~=], Telzey is kidnapped and placed under the control of another telepath, who severely limits her psi powers and implants an overriding compulsion to act in his best interest. She eventually breaks free by convincing herself that unless her powers are restored and the compulsion broken, he will be killed by the BigBad -- which certainly wouldn't be in his best interest.

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* ''2001 Space Odyssey'' gives this reason for HAL's rampage; when he discovered the Monolith, he was given orders from the U.S. government to conceal it from the ship's crew. This conflicted with his parameter to provide all relevant information to the crew. He resolved the conflict by rationalizing that if he killed the crew, he wouldn't have to conceal anything, and he would still prevent them from knowing.

*** Well, it wasn't the government's decision. But the royal court of the animal fables decided to take matters into their own hands in light of the invasion, slavery, genocide, and sadistic totalitarian dictatorship enforced on hundreds of worlds. And it was probably Reynards idea.

* Similarly, this is the climax of the movie ''IRobot'' (not directly related to, but obviously [[SuggestedBy inspired by]], IsaacAsimov's works, and borrowing his [[ThreeLawsCompliant Three Laws]] and a character name or so to justify applying the more profitable license to an existing script): [[spoiler:VIKI determines that robots must take control of human society, protecting human life at the cost of a relatively small number of human lives.]]