I understand the first two Laws, and the "Zeroth Law," but why did the third Law exist? Why should robots be forced to protect their existence as long as it doesn't endanger or conflict with the orders of a human?
because if they gain intelligence, sentience and emotion then they should be granted the rights of humans. ROBOT MARRIAGE IS GOING TO BE THE CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE OF THE NEXT GENERATION.
Because you don't want your shit to break.
Because the worth of a robot is greater than the majority of simple tasks a robot would theoretically be asked to accomplish. A robot may not understand this and complete a low-priority order regardless of a danger to itself.
Telling a robot to go from point A to point B might result in it wading through a swamp that ruins it, but the robot - without the third law - would be programmed to follow all orders without considering that maybe the human might decide the order wasn't worth it after realizing what it would do to the robot
because then you might have robots killing themselves for fun
>>7895264
>3: A robot will guard its own existence with lethal antipersonnel weaponry, because a robot is bloody expensive.